At the corner of the street, a waggon with its cannon had been abandoned, as the wheels were broken. A little further on was another waggon, containing ammunition, which would have to be drowned in the little river. In a wide ditch, was the dead body of a horse almost covering the body of an officer of the Dragoons, whose head alone was visible, emerging from the stagnant water. On the Square, we picked up the Belgian flag, which had been floating at the Municipal Building. It had been snatched down by the Prussians, torn and dragged through the mud. We had it put up again, just as it was, and we saluted it with deep respect, little thinking then that it would soon be the emblem of our poor country, torn, violated, and trampled under foot by a barbarous soldiery. On our return, we took the tragic path where our indomitable Cyclists had held out so heroically. The broken bicycles, the dead bodies of our "diables noirs" and of their adversaries, proved their courage, and the punishment they had inflicted on these Germans, particularly on those of the 17th Dragoons, that famous regiment, composed of the flower of the Mecklenburg nobility. A little farther on, we met some soldiers carrying a ladder, on which a sub-officer of our Lancers was lying. He had been wounded in the knee. "I have spent a terrible night," he said, with a smile on his lips. "I was wounded and lying in a beet-root field by the side of a German sub-officer. After insulting me, he fired on me three times with his revolver, and lodged his last ball in his own head. He is still there in the field." How long this walk back seemed to us! We would willingly have closed our eyes. We could not help thinking of the mothers, sisters, and families of all those we had just seen there, men who had died for their country, victims of a sanguinary, brutal, perjured despot. The thought of these poor families threw a sombre veil over our pride in the memory of our first victory! CHAPTER IX The Budingen Combat (August 18, 1914) Death of Lieutenant Count W. d'Ursel. By Colonel de Schietere de Lophem, Commander of the 4th Lancers The Combat of Budingen is an episode of the forcing of the Gette by the vanguards of General von Kluck's army. The attack extended from Diest to Tirlemont and was particularly violent at Tirlemont and at Hauthem-St. Marguerite. On the 17th of August, towards 6.30, in the evening, I received orders to go to Budingen, with the Staff of the 2nd Group of the 1st Guides. Early in the morning, the two Squadrons under my command had been sent from Geet-Betz on reconnaissance: the 3rd, towards Looz and the 4th, in the direction of Oreye. It was, therefore, without troops that I arrived at Budingen towards 7.30 P.M.