il, and when they realized this I fancied
I heard a low wail of anguish rise from the disappointed multitude.

Other means of escape were, however, available in the shape of a dozen
or fifteen tugboats, whose destinations were Rotterdam and Flushing and
other ports of Holland. They were not vessels of any considerable
passenger carrying capacity, and as there was no one to arrange a
systematic embarkation a wild struggle followed among the frantic people
to obtain places on the tugs. Men, women, and children fought
desperately with each other to get on board, and in that moment of
supreme anguish human nature was seen in one of its worst moods, but who
can blame these stricken people? Shells that were destroying their homes
and giving their beloved town to the flames were screaming over their
heads. Their trade was not war; they were merchants, shopkeepers,
comfortable citizens of more than middle age, and there were many women
and children among them, and this horror had come upon them in a more
appalling shape than it has visited any other civilized community in
modern times.

There was a scarcity of gangways to the boats and the only means of
boarding them was by narrow planks sloping at a dangerous angle. Up
these the fugitives struggled, and the strong elbowed the weak out of
their way in their mad haste to escape. The marvel to me as I watched
the scramble was that many were not crushed to death in the struggle to
get on board or forced into the river and drowned. As it was, mishaps
were very few. One old lady of 80 years slipped on one of the planks and
fell against the side of the boat, fracturing her skull. Several people
fell into the river and two were drowned, but that is the sum total of
accidents as far as I could ascertain.

By 2 o'clock Thursday most of the tugboats had got away, but there were
still some 15,000 people who had not been able to escape, and had to
await resignedly whatever fate was in store for them.

I have endeavored to describe the scenes at the quayside on Thursday
morning, and I now turn to the Central Station, where incidents of a
similar kind were happening. There, as down by the river, an immense
throng of people had assembled, and they were filled with dismay at the
announcement that no trains were running. In their despair they prepared
to leave the city on foot by crossing the pontoon bridge and marching
toward the Dutch frontier.

I cannot, of course, speak positively on t