ad. How long this particular fire raged I cannot say, for I saw
neither the beginning nor the end of it, but while I watched its
progress it seemed to represent the limit of what a fire was capable of.

After watching for some considerable time the panorama of destruction
that lay unrolled all around me, I came down from my post of observation
on the cathedral roof, and at the very moment I reached the street a
28-centimeter shell struck a confectioner's shop between the Place Verte
and the Place Meir. It was one of these high explosive shells, and the
shop, a wooden structure, immediately burst into flames.

The city by this time was almost deserted, and no attempt was made to
extinguish the fires that had broken out all over the southern district.
Indeed, there were no means of dealing with them.

As far back as Tuesday in last week the water supply from the reservoir
ten miles outside the city was cut off, and as this was the city's main
source of supply, indeed practically its only source, great apprehension
was felt. The reservoir is just behind Fort Waelhem, and the German
shells had struck it, doing great mischief. It left Antwerp without any
regular inflow of water, and the inhabitants had to do their best with
artesian wells. Great efforts were made by the Belgians from time to
time to repair the reservoir, but it was always thwarted by German shell
fire. The health of the city was thereby menaced, for there was danger
of an epidemic.

Happily, stricken Antwerp was spared this added terror. It had plenty
of other sorts, and some of these I experienced when, after leaving the
cathedral, I made my way to the southern section of the city, where
shells were bursting at the rate of five a minute. With great difficulty
and not without risk I got as far as Rue la Moiere.

There I met a terror-stricken Belgian woman, the only other person in
the streets besides myself. In hysterical gasps she told me the Banque
Nationale and the Palais de Justice had been struck and were in flames,
and that her husband had been hit by a shell just five minutes before I
came upon the scene, his mangled remains lying not a hundred yards away
from where we were standing.

It was obviously impossible to proceed further, and so I retraced my
steps toward the quay. As I was passing the Avenue de Keyser a shell
burst within twenty yards of me. I was knocked down by the force of the
concussion. A house not ten yards from where I was was s