As regards Lieutenant d'Ursel, I knew he had been wounded under the left temple, but I heard that he was dead when I was at St. Trond. According to information that I received, when the body of this officer of the Guides was identified, he was wounded in the face and heart. From this account, we see that the Germans attacked the Budingen bridge with considerable forces, that the two Squadrons of Guides resisted with the greatest bravery, and that, in compliance with their instructions, they _defended to the uttermost_ the passage of the Gette. To my deep regret, I was obliged to leave Lieutenant d'Ursel on the battle-field. But I affirm that, at the time I left him, he had only one wound in the head and that if he was wounded afterwards in the heart, he had been killed _when wounded_, in contempt of the laws of warfare. CHAPTER X Aerschot (August 19, 1914) From the Report of Captain Commander Gilson, commanding the 4th Company of the 1st Battalion of the 9th Line Regiment The Belgian Army, two Corps strong, had held its observation position from the 5th to the 18th of August. It had resisted the attacks of the enemy cavalry and light troops. When attacked by eleven enemy Corps and three Cavalry Divisions, about 500,000 men, supported by 600 machine-guns and 1800 cannons, it fell back on Antwerp. A lively rear-guard action took place between the 11th German Corps and the 9th and 14th Line Regiments in the direction of Aerschot. On the 18th of August, 1914, the 9th Line Regiment was entrusted with protecting the right flank of the campaign army, which was falling back in the direction of Antwerp. The regiment left Kessel-Loo at 2.30 in the afternoon, reached Aerschot at 7 o'clock and took up its position to the north, on the right bank of the Demer. The 1st Battalion faced the Aerschot-Hersselt road; the 2nd, a little to the east, defending Doorenberg, a country house, inhabited in time of peace, it is said, by a German officer; the 3rd was first held in reserve, but after reconnaissance of the place, two of its Companies fell back, in order to rally the 1st and 2nd Battalions and cover the retreat. The information which reached us, from time to time, was to the effect that the Germans were advancing by the Aerschot-Hersselt road, occupied by the 4th Company of the 1st Battalion. The Commander, Captain Gilson, an officer of great bravery, who had given proof of what he was capable in the Congo, at once endeavoured to consolidate his position by defence works; barricades, beams, and heaps of earth were brought to obstruct the level crossing of the Antwerp-Hasselt railroad; barbed wire was stretched across the threatened road, the plains of which could be swept by two machine-guns, placed on the right and left and protected by grass earthworks.