The fate of Antwerp shows what might have happened to Paris had the Germans been able to bring up their great siege guns to the outer fortifications of the French capital and protect them while they performed their tremendous task of battering the defenses to pieces. The wrecking of Antwerp's outer and inner forts in ten days proves that solid, massive concrete, chilled steel and well-planned earthworks afford little or no security against the monstrous cannon of the Kaiser's armies. There appeared to be but one way of withstanding them. As seems to have been demonstrated in the valley of the Aisne, they are apparently ineffective against field forces deeply intrenched in a far-flung line. THE FIGHTING OUTSIDE ANTWERP Early on Tuesday morning, October 6, one of the fiercest of the engagements outside Antwerp ended with the crossing of the River Nethe by the Germans and their approach to the inner forts. Monday had been the sixth day of the siege and the Belgian army was fighting with reckless courage to save Antwerp. As a precaution, the boilers of all the German ships lying in the harbor were exploded on Sunday, in order to prevent, if possible, use of these ships as transports for German troops across the North Sea or elsewhere. The detonation of the bursting boilers, resounding through the city, set the excited Sunday crowd very near to a panic. This was accelerated by the constant fear of airship attacks, and most of the population that was not already in active flight from the city sought safety in cellars. The entire war has presented no greater picture of desolation than that of the hosts fleeing from the last Belgian stronghold. For forty-eight hours before the city fell great crowds of the citizens, dumb with terror as the huge German shells hurtled over their heads, were fleeing toward England and Holland in such numbers that the hospitality of those countries was likely to be taxed to the utmost. The suburban town of Lierre was bombarded early in the week, the church was destroyed, and a number of citizens killed and wounded. The next day; the village of Duffel was bombarded and the population fled into Antwerp. Many still had confidence in the ability of the Antwerp forts to withstand the German attack. Although the Germans succeeded in crossing the Nethe, their repeated attempts to effect a passage over the Scheldt were repulsed and they then concentrated their attention on an approach to Antwerp from the southeast. In their trenches the Belgians resisted gallantly to the last. "Most wonderful," said an American observer on October 7, "is the patient, unfaltering courage of the average Belgian soldier, who has been fighting for nine weeks. Tired, with hollow eyes, unkempt, unwashed and provided with hasty, though ample, meals, he is spending most of the time in the trenches.