It is not my intention to recapitulate here the ensuing changes of fortune. The first act of the drama was, as everybody knows, the desperate fight which the "Belgian Army of ragamuffins"--now reduced to 80,000 men, with but 48,000 rifles and 350 guns--put up on the Yser during the last two weeks of October, against 150,000 Germans--mostly fresh troops--employing at least 500 guns of all calibres. Except for a reinforcement of 6,000 French marines, it was at first unsupported, yet it maintained an heroic resistance for eight days, fired by the passionate appeal and the example of its king. After October 23rd it had the help of the first detachments from the French division under Grossetti, and kept up the fight for another week with almost superhuman energy. On the 31st the Germans were driven from Ramscapelle, and obliged to give ground before the inundation, whose dark, stealthy waters slowly but surely invaded the low-lying plain between the river and the Nieuport-Dixmude railway. The battle of the Yser was then practically over. It had ended in victory, and the direct road to Dunkirk and Calais was barred to the enemy. He had suffered huge losses; but those of the Belgian Army also had been heavy enough--they were placed at 11,000 killed and missing and 9,000 wounded, a total of some 25,000 men, including those put out of action by sickness and exhaustion. The cadres had been so depleted that some regiments had only about ten officers left. Material was in a sad condition; half of the guns, rifles and machine-guns were useless, at least for the time being, and reserves of ammunition had given out. The men looked hardly human in their ragged clothing. There were terrible gaps in their ranks. The infantry--to mention only the arm which had the hardest fighting to do--was reduced to 32,000 rifles. Yet, in spite of its weakness and its destitution--all the more pitiable now that winter was approaching--this army set about mounting guard over the last fragment of Belgian soil which its valour had preserved for the fatherland.