“In the villages all ordinary life was arrested.  Women and children were standing or sitting dumb and patient by the roadside.  Half way to Termonde we could plainly hear the booming of guns and saw many evidences of the battle which was then raging.

“I had read newspaper accounts of the destruction of Termonde and had seen photographs, but they had not conveyed to my mind any realization of the horror of what actually happened.  Termonde a few weeks ago was a beautiful city of about 16,000 inhabitants—­a city in which the dignity of its buildings harmonized with the natural beauty of its situation, a city which contained some buildings of surpassing interest.

“I went through street after street, square after square, and I found every house entirely destroyed with all its contents.  It was not the result of the bombardment; it was systematic destruction.  In each house a separate bomb had been placed, which had blown up the interior and set fire to the contents.  All that remained in every case were portions of the outer walls, which were still constantly falling, and inside the cinders of the contents of the buildings.  Not a shred of furniture or anything else remained.

“This sight continued throughout the entire extent of what had been a considerable town.  It had an indescribable influence upon observers which no printed description or even pictorial record could give.  This influence was increased by the utter silence of the city, broken only by the sound of the guns.

“Of the population I thought that not a soul remained.  I was wrong, for as we turned into a square where the wreck of what had been one of the most beautiful of Gothic churches met my eyes a blind woman and her daughter groped among the ruins.  They were the sole living creatures in the whole town.

“Shops, factories, churches, and houses of the wealthy—­all were similarly destroyed.  One qualification only have I to make of this statement:  Two or perhaps three houses bore the German command in chalk that they were not to be burned.  These remained standing, but deserted, amid the ruins on either side.  Where a destroyed house had obviously contained articles of value looting had taken place.

“I inquired what had become of the population.  It was a question to which no direct reply could be given.  They had fled in all directions.  Some had reached Antwerp, but a greater number were wandering about the country, panic-stricken and starving.  Many were already dead.

“What happened at Termonde was similar to what had happened in other parts of Belgium under military occupation of Germany.  The result is that conditions have been set up for the civilian population throughout the occupied territory of unexampled misery.  Comparatively few refugees have reached this country.  Others remain wandering about Belgium, flocking into other towns and villages, or flying to points a little way across the Dutch frontier.