is all the heroic poetry of battle! Men will now creep up after
dark, ambushed in safety behind the celestial curtains, and drop bombs on
sleepers beneath for the greater glory of some fine figment or other. It
filled me, not with wrath at the work of Kaisers and Kings, for we know
what is possible with them, but with dismay at the discovery that one's
fellows are so docile and credulous that they will obey any order,
however abominable. The very heavens had been fouled by this obscene and
pallid worm, crawling over those eternal verities to which eyes had been
lifted for light when night and trouble were over dark. God was dethroned
by science. One looked startled at humanity, seeing not the accustomed
countenance, but, for a moment, glimpsing instead the baleful lidless
stare of the evil of the slime, the unmentionable of a nightmare....

A deafening crash brought us out of bed in one movement. I must have been
dozing. Someone cried, "My children!" Another rending uproar interrupted
my effort to shepherd the flock to a lower floor. There was a raucous
avalanche of glass. We muddled down somehow--I forget how. I could not
find the matches. Then in the dark we lost the youngest for some eternal
seconds while yet another explosion shook the house. We got to the
cellar stairs, and at last there they all were, their backs to the coals,
sitting on lumber.

A candle was on the floor. There were more explosions, somewhat muffled.
The candle-flame showed a little tremulous excitement, as if it were one
of the party. It reached upwards curiously in a long intent flame, and
then shrank flat with what it had learned. We were accompanied by
grotesque shadows. They stood about us on the white and unfamiliar walls.
We waited. Even the shadows seemed to listen with us; they hardly moved,
except when the candle-flame was nervous. Then the shadows wavered
slightly. We waited. I caught the boy's eye, and winked. He winked back.
The youngest, still with sleepy eyes, was trembling, though not with
cold, and this her sister noticed, and put her arms about her. His mother
had her hand on her boy's shoulder.

There was no more noise outside. It was time, perhaps, to go up to see
what had happened. I put a raincoat over my pyjamas, and went into the
street. Some of my neighbours, who were special constables, hurried by.
The enigmatic night, for a time, for five minutes, or five seconds (I do
not know how long it was), was remarkably still a