“’The German minister has this morning addressed a note to the Belgian minister for foreign affairs stating that as the Belgian government has declined a well intentioned proposal submitted to it by the imperial German government the latter, deeply to its regret, will be compelled to carry out, if necessary by force of arms, the measures considered indispensable in view of the French menace.’”

ENGLAND AND GERMANY AT WAR

By 11 o’clock that evening England and Germany were at war.  Their respective ambassadors were handed their passports and Great Britain braced herself for a conflict that was felt to threaten her very existence as a nation.

CHAPTER VII.

THE INVASION OF BELGIUM

  Belgians Rush to Defense of Their Frontier—­Towns Bombarded
  and Burned—­Defense of Liege—­Fall of Liege—­
 —­Fall of Namur—­Peasants and Townspeople Flee—­
  Destruction of Louvain.

At 10 o’clock on the night of August 2 German troops crossed the Belgian frontier, coming from Aix-la-Chapelle, or Aachen, temporary headquarters of the general staff, and the bloody invasion of Belgium, involving the violation of its neutral treaty rights, began.  Simultaneously the German forces entered the independent duchy of Luxemburg to the south, en route to the French border, and also came in touch with French outposts in the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.

The events that followed in Belgium furnished a genuine surprise to the world.  Instead of finding the Belgian people indifferent to the violation of their territory and the Belgian army only a slight obstacle in the road to Paris, as was probably expected by the German general staff, a most gallant and determined resistance was offered to the progress of the German hosts.  The army of the little State was quickly mobilized for defense and its operations, while ineffectual in stopping the Kaiser’s irresistible force, delayed its advance for three invaluable weeks, giving time for the complete mobilization of the French and for the landing of a British expeditionary force to co-operate with the latter in resisting the German approach to Paris.

Just across the Belgian border lay the little towns of Vise and Verviers, and these were the first objects of German attack and Belgian defense.  Both were occupied after desperate resistance by the Belgians and Vise was partly demolished by fire in reprisal, it was claimed, for the firing by civilians on the German invaders.  The subsequent bombardment and burning of towns and villages by the Germans were explained in every case as measures of revenge for hostile acts on the part of non-combatants and intended to prevent their occurrence elsewhere by striking terror into the hearts of the Belgian populace.  Whatever the pretext or the excuse, the historical fact remains that the result of the German progress toward the Franco-Belgian frontier constituted a martyrdom for Belgium and gained for the plucky little kingdom the fullest sympathy of the civilized world.