ot anxious to be tangled up in the midst of a retreat,
and obliged to spend the night trying to work our way out of it, so we
forged ahead and got back to Lierre as fast as we could. It was raining
hard as we came in, and we took refuge in the Hotel de Ville, where the
colonels read their telegrams and got off a report to London. One of
their telegrams brought the unwelcome news that Ferguson was also
recalled to England. They are evidently hard put to it to find enough
officers to handle the volunteer forces. He will have to stay on for a
few days, but Colonel DuCane came back with us and left the next morning
for England by way of Ostend.

When we got back to the hotel after a fast run, I found that Inglebleek,
the King's Secretary, had been around twice for me, and wanted me to go
at once to the Palace. I jumped into the car and ran over there, to
learn that the Queen wanted to see me. She was then at dinner, and he
thought it would do the next time I came up--she seems to have wanted
more news of Brussels--nothing pressing. She had told Inglebleek to give
me a set of the pictures she had had taken of the damage done to the
Cathedral at Malines. They are interesting as a matter of record.

Sir Francis had another good bulletin from the War Office, and was
beaming. The colleagues came and gathered round the table, and chortled
with satisfaction.

Heavy cannonading continued well into the night, to cover the advance of
the ----th Division, which had been reinforced and was moving back into
the dark and rain to take up its old position and be ready for the
Germans in the morning.

I was up and about early on Sunday morning. Had breakfast with Count
Goblet d'Alviella, one of the Ministers of State. Gathered up Monsieur
de Woeste and Faura, and made for the Scheldt and Brussels. Instead of
going across on the boat as we had to do the last time, we found a broad
and comfortable pontoon bridge placed on canal boats and schooners
lashed together and moored from one side of the river to the other. Any
time they like, the Belgians can cut the string, and there is no way of
getting into the city from that side. There was a tremendous wind
blowing and the rain fell in torrents--short showers--from the time we
left Antwerp until we came sailing into town here.

The bridge at Termonde had been blown up by the Germans on evacuating
the place after having destroyed the entire town, so there was no
thought of returning that way.