FROM THE TRENCHES FROM THE TRENCHES LOUVAIN TO THE AISNE, THE FIRST RECORD OF AN EYE-WITNESS BY GEOFFREY WINTHROP YOUNG LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN 1 ADELPHI TERRACE W.C. _I wish to express my obligation to the Proprietors of the "Daily News" for permission to use material contributed to their columns._ _First Published October, 1914._ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE OUTBREAK. IN AND OUT OF PARIS 7 II. THE FIRST DAYS IN BRUSSELS 23 III. THE BELGIAN ENGAGEMENTS. EGHEZEE, HAELEN 34 IV. NAMUR AND THE FRENCH LINES 59 V. LOUVAIN AND WATERLOO 83 VI. THE LAST OF BRUSSELS. THE FLIGHT AND THE FLOOD 95 VII. ANTWERP AND MALINES 132 VIII. PARIS AND THE TRENCHES 151 IX. THE MOVEMENTS IN THE NORTH 174 X. THE BATTLES ON THE MARNE 193 XI. ON THE OISE AND THE SOMME 226 XII. ON THE AISNE 255 XIII. THE SHADOW OF THE WAR 293 XIV. ARMS AND THE MAN 302 FROM THE TRENCHES CHAPTER I The Outbreak. In and out of Paris On Tuesday, 28th of July, I returned from the Alps; the weather conditions had been arctic and the climbing more than usually exciting. During a bathe in the Lake of Geneva, which has become the customary end of the climbing season, I remember saying to my companion, "Well, this is the end of all sensation for the year. Now for the usual dull winter's work." On Thursday I volunteered to go with the Servian Army as War Correspondent for the _Daily News_, but the European conflagration was already too imminent. On Sunday, it was arranged that I should go to Paris to join the French Army. The journey started normally. But at Newhaven it was startling to see three English travellers turn and rush off the boat at the last minute. It was the first and unforgettable sign of the break-up in our order of life. To take a ticket and start a journey no longer meant the inevitable procession to its end. We were beginning the life of the unexpected; when event and interruption was to take the place of the decent ordering of hours by convention and system.