“By midnight the town was in the throes of a panic.  Long before midnight throngs of refugees had begun to arrive, followed later by soldiers.  By 11 o’clock the Belgian rear guard was engaging the enemy at the railroad bridge at the entrance to the town.

“The firing was heavy.  The wounded began to come in.  Riderless horses came along, both German and Belgian.  These were caught and mounted by civilians glad to have so rapid a mode of escape.

TROOPS HINDERED BY CIVILIANS

“I remember watching a black clad Belgian woman running straight down the middle of a road away from the Germans.  Behind her came the retiring Belgian troops, disheartened but valiant.  This woman, clad in mourning, was the symbol of the Belgian populace.

“At some of the barricades along the route the refugees and soldiers arrived simultaneously, making the defense difficult.  All about Tirlemont and Louvain the refugees interfered with the work of the troops.  The road to Brussels always was crowded with refugees and many sorrowful sights were witnessed among them as they fled from the homes that had been peaceful and prosperous a few days before.  BRUSSELS FILLED WITH REFUGEES

“Brussels is filled with refugees from surrounding towns, despite the large numbers who left the city for Ghent and Ostend during the last few days,” said a correspondent, writing from Ghent on August 20.

“The plight of most of the refugees is pitiable.  Many are camped in the public square whose homes in the suburbs have been fired by the Prussians.  The roads leading into Brussels have been crowded all day with all kinds of conveyances, many drawn by dogs and others by girls, women and aged peasants.

“Most of these people have lost everything.  Few of them have any money.  The peasant is considered lucky who succeeded in saving a single horse or a cow.

“Military men characterize the German force which is moving across Belgium as overwhelming, saying it consists of at least two or three army corps.  The advance of this huge force is covered over the entire thirty-mile front by a screen of cavalry.  The Germans had no difficulty in taking Louvain, which was virtually undefended.

“In the high wooded country between Louvain and Brussels the Germans found an excellent defensive position.  Having occupied Louvain, the Kaiser’s troops pushed forward with great celerity, the cavalry opening out in fan-shaped formation, spreading across country.

“At one point they ran into a strong force of Belgian artillery, which punished them severely.  Later in the day a Belgian scouting force reached Louvain and found it unoccupied, but received imperative orders to fall back, because of the danger of being outflanked and annihilated.”

ALLIES MEET THE INVADERS