I had scarcely picked myself up and was hastening to a place of safety, if there were one, when a man about 40 years of age, almost half naked, rushed out of a house, screaming loudly.  He had gone mad.

At this time I was fortunate enough to meet Frank Fox of The Morning Post.  Mr. Fox is an ex-officer of artillery, and he told me he had found a hotel which, as long as the Germans fired in the direction they were then firing, was not within the reach of their guns.  This was the Hotel Wagner, which stands behind the Opera House on the Boulevard de Commerce.  It was the only hotel in the city except the Queens Hotel, in which some representatives of American newspapers had been staying, that was open.  There I found Miss Louise Mack, an Australian authoress, and she, Fox, and myself were among the few British subjects left in the port.

As night came the city presented a fantastic appearance as I watched it from the Hotel Wagner.  The glare from the fires that had burst out in all directions could be seen for miles around.  The bombardment was proceeding furiously, and German shells were bursting in every direction.  I reckoned they were coming in that time at the rate of at least thirty a minute.

I went to the Queens Hotel to ascertain what had become of the American journalists.  I found they had left the city after having spent the night in a private house which had been struck three times by shells, and finally caught fire.  Arthur Ruhl of the staff of Collier’s Weekly had left for me this note: 

Donald C. Thompson, photographer of The New York World, fitted up for himself a cellar at 74 Rue de Peage, just by the Boulevard de Keyser, where shrapnel fell with terrible force during the latter part of Wednesday.  With him were three other Americans.  The entire population, including, of course, the Government of Antwerp, have made their escape across the pontoon bridge which still connects the River Scheldt with the road toward Ghent.  Two shells demolished Thompson’s retreat and at sundown it burst into flames.  The American Consul General and Vice Consul General had gone by this time.  The following Americans, all of them newspaper men, were known to have spent the night in Antwerp; Arthur Ruhl, Horace Green, staff of The New York Evening Post; Edward Eyre Hunt, correspondent of The New York World; Edward Heigel of the staff of The Chicago Daily Tribune, and Thompson himself.

Except for the glare of burning buildings, which lit up the streets, the city was in absolute darkness, and near the quay I lost my way in the byroads trying to get back to the Hotel Wagner.  For the second time that day I narrowly escaped death by a shell.  One burst with terrific force about twenty-five yards from me.  I heard its warning whirr, and rushed into a neighboring porch.  Whether it was from concussion of the shell or in my anxiety to escape, I cannoned against a door and tumbled down.  As I lay on the ground the house on the opposite side crashed in ruins.  I remained still for several minutes feeling quite sick and unable to get up.  Then I pulled myself together, and ran at full speed until I came to a street which I recognized, and found my way back to the hotel.