Two days before the bombardment began there was a meeting of the American residents—­such of them as still remained in the city—­at the leading club.  About a dozen of us in all sat down to dinner.  The purpose of the gathering was to discuss the attitude which the Americans should adopt towards the German officers, for it was known that the fall of the city was imminent.  I remember that the sense of the meeting was that we should treat the helmeted intruders with frigid politeness—­I think that was the term—­which, translated, meant that we were not to offer them cigars and buy them drinks.  Of the twelve of us who sat around the table that night, there are only two—­Mr. Manly Whedbee and myself—­who remained to witness the German occupation.

That the precautions taken against Zeppelins were by no means overdone was proved by the total failure of the second aerial raid on Antwerp, in the latter part of September, when a dirigible again sailed over the city under cover of darkness.  Owing to the total absence of street-lights, however, the dirigible’s crew were evidently unable to get their bearings, for the half-dozen bombs that they discharged fell in the outskirts of the city without causing any loss of life or doing any serious damage.  This time, moreover, the Belgians were quite prepared—­the fire of their “sky artillery,” guided by searchlights, making things exceedingly uncomfortable for the Germans.

I have heard it stated by Belgian officers and others that the bombs were dropped from the dirigibles by an ingenious arrangement which made the airship itself comparatively safe from harm and at the same time rendered the aim of its bombmen much more accurate.  According to them, the dirigible comes to a stop—­or as near a stop as possible—­above the city or fortification which it wishes to attack, at a height out of range of either artillery or rifle-fire.  Then, by means of a steel cable a thousand feet or more in length, it lowers a small wire cage just large enough to contain a man and a supply of bombs, this cage being sufficiently armoured so that it is proof against rifle-bullets.  At the same time it affords so tiny a mark that the chances of its being hit by artillery-fire are insignificant.  If it should be struck, moreover, the airship itself would still be unharmed and only one man would be lost, and when he fell his supply of bombs would fall with him.  The Zeppelin, presumably equipped with at least two cages and cables, might at once lower another bomb-thrower.  I do not pretend to say whether this ingenious contrivance is used by the Germans.  Certainly the Zeppelin which I saw in action had nothing of the kind, nor did it drop its projectiles promiscuously, as one would drop a stone, but apparently discharged them from a bomb-tube.