The feeling of a threatened calamity deepened.  Another warning proclamation was issued ordering all citizens to give up their arms.  Further, everyone was ordered to bed at eight o’clock, all windows were to be closed and all doors unlocked.  A burning lamp was to be placed in each window.  On the claim that German soldiers had been killed by citizens, the burgomaster and several of the city officials were secured as hostages.  A stern proclamation was issued threatening with immediate execution every citizen found with a weapon in his possession or house.  Every house from which a shot was fired would be burned.

This was on August 22, 1914.  By the evening of that day the German army had passed through Louvain, estimated to the number of 50,000 men.  Only the 3,000 garrison remained in the city.  Outwardly, the citizens resumed their usual daily affairs as if with a sense of relief, but whispers dropped now and then revealed an abiding terror beneath.  Some time during the next day or two the anticipated calamity fell upon Louvain.  The German officers insisted that sniping was steadily going on, and the military authorities put into force their threatened reprisal.  The torch, or rather incendiary tablets were thrown into convicted houses.  Larger groups of citizens were led to execution.  Thereupon the “brute” passion dormant in soldiers broke the bonds of discipline.  Flames burst forth everywhere.  Beneath the lurid glow cast upon the sky above Louvain whole streets stood out in blackened ruin, and those architectural treasures of the Halles and the University, with its famous library, were destroyed beyond hope of repair.  Only the walls of St. Peter’s Church, containing many priceless paintings, remained.

Meanwhile, on the morning of August 20, 1914, the German army had swept away the comparatively small Belgian rearguard force before Brussels, and advanced upon the capital.  On the previous 17th the King of the Belgians removed his Government to Antwerp.  The diplomatic corps followed.  Mr. Brand Whitlock, the American Minister, however, remained.  In his capacity as a neutral he had assisted stranded Germans in Brussels from hasty official and mob peril.  He stayed to perform a similar service for the Belgians and Allies.  His success in these efforts won for him German respect and the gratitude of the whole Belgian nation.

A lingering plan for defending Brussels by throwing up barricades and constructing wire entanglements, to be manned by the Civic Guard, was abandoned in the face of wiser counsel.  It would merely have resulted in a bombardment, with needless destruction of life and property.  Brussels was defenseless.