A Journal From Our Legation in BelgiumGibson, Hugh
History
A Journal From Our Legation in Belgium
Gibson, Hugh
Belgium -- History -- German occupation, 1914-1918
Blount and I had a huge room on the third floor front. We had just got
into bed and were settling down to a good night's rest when there was an
explosion, the like of which I have never heard before, and we sat up
and paid strict attention. We were greatly interested, but took it
calmly, knowing that the forts were nearly four miles out of town and
that they could bang away as long as they liked without doing more than
spoil our night's sleep. There were eight of these explosions at short
intervals, and then as they stopped there was a sharp _purr_ like the
distant rattle of a machine gun. As that died down, the chimes of the
Cathedral--the sweetest carillon I have ever heard--sounded one o'clock.
We thought that the Germans must have tried an advance under cover of a
bombardment, and retired as soon as they saw that the forts were
vigilant and not to be taken by surprise. We did not even get out of
bed. About five minutes later we heard footsteps on the roof and the
voice of a woman in a window across the street, asking some one on the
sidewalk below whether it was safe to go back to bed. I got out and took
a look into the street. There were a lot of people there talking and
gesticulating, but nothing of enough interest to keep two tired men from
their night's sleep, so we climbed back into bed and stayed until
morning.
Blount called me at what seemed an unreasonably early hour and said we
should be up and about our day's work. When we were both dressed, we
found that we had made a bad guess, when he looked at his watch and
discovered that it was only a quarter to seven. Being up, however, we
decided to go down and get our breakfast.
When we got down we found everybody else stirring, and it took us
several minutes to get it through our heads that we had been through
more excitement than we wotted of. Those distant explosions that we had
taken so calmly were bombs dropped from a Zeppelin which had sailed over
the city and dropped death and destruction in its path. The first bomb
fell less than two hundred yards from where we slept--no wonder that we
were rocked in our beds! After a little breakfast we sallied forth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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