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270 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
British disappeared. The commander and Bess would have
been roasted had they remained longer at their post, and they
too dived into the sea. As regards the latter, he did not
recover consciousness until he found himself in a comfortable
berth on board one of the rescue ships. The Ariadne had
lost close on seventy men out of her full complement of three
hundred.
Thus ended the first day which I spent with the German
naval officers at Ostend, that glorious watering-place, at other
times the rendezvous of la haute volée and " the upper ten,"
that pleasure-ground of innumerable good-for-nothings, where
dissipated diplomats bathe their jaded bodies in the pure salt
sea, where namby-pamby dandies flirt with idle, fascinating
women. Now German imperial power stood like an im-
penetrable iron wall on the brink of the sea, with its spear
pointed at the heart of England. The first goal had been
reached, England—fearful of her world supremacy on the sea
and jealous of the rapid commercial and economic rise of
Germany—had made up her mind to join in the fight and had
declared war on Germany. Now, if ever, was the opportunity
to get at a hated rival—without too great a sacrifice of her
own resources. But already German forces had reached the
ocean shore. Antwerp had fallen, the city which Mr. Winston
Churchill, like the Duke of Wellington of old, had wished to
convert into a British base for operations on the Continent, a
point from which the Belgians could be put to rights should
they perchance become less patient and show less interest in the
sacred cause. Yes, Antwerp—the city which was to be saved
for Great Britain even if the rest of Belgium went under—had
fallen, in spite of Britain’s protest and in spite of the showers
of abuse which the proud British had poured over their
honourable enemy. The greatest drama of the world’s history
was in full swing. Were the Teutons to go under and the
culture of the German " barbarians " to be wiped out ? No,
never ! Such a purpose would require other means for its
fulfilment than those hitherto tried by the Allies. The military
position of Germany is too strong, and all attempts to crush
her people are and must be hopeless. But woe to those who
bear the blame for the agony of the vanquished !
It was with a queer feeling that I went to bed in a room
where I could look upon a sea from which British warships
had only a moment ago been bombarding the coast a few
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