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TWO MORE DAYS ON THE CHANNEL COAST 285
the way. And so he fled precipitately across to London with
his family.
From about that time the number of fugitives increased
daily. They came in ever-increasing throngs from Antwerp,
Ghent, Bruges, Termonde and elsewhere. On October 12th
the last shipload of fugitives left the town, and after swarming
with life like a beehive, it now became empty and deserted.
A few members of the Belgian Cabinet remained, but on the
13th they, too, left by a Government steamer, the Aventi.
They had been staying at the Majestic and Littoral—the latter
had also been the residence of His Excellency Vandervelde.
By the 14th and 15th of October there were no steamers left
at Ostend for the fresh bands of fugitives who kept on arriving,
and anything in the nature of fishing-smacks was eagerly
snapped up. The reports of the advance of the German legions
became louder and more insistent, and the civil populaton
which remained was in a state of the tensest excitement,
expecting to see them march in at any moment. Two hours
before the first Germans appeared the last Belgian lancer,
without helmet or sword, flung himself on his horse and
galloped down the stone-paved road towards Middelkerke.
The German " advance guard " was not formidable—it con-
sisted of two cyclists and a horseman. It was then half-past
ten in the morning, Belgian time. The last fishing-smack with
sixty passengers had just cast off its moorings, but was com-
pelled to return. The next few days saw the arrival of increas-
ing bands of German troops, and then came the occurrences
which I have just described.
Now, on the 24th of October, the situation at Ostend was,
to say the least, interesting. Everybody expected with im-
perturbable calm that something remarkable would happen.
The possibility of an attempted landing was not overlooked.
The Germans were prepared for it, at any rate. Anyone who
had attempted such a step would have met with a warm
reception, for large quantities of troops had been massed
along the coast. At our hotel they realised, it seems, fairly
plainly what was on foot. The stairs were thronged at all
hours of the day with officers and men, and outside my door
I heard late at night hurried conversations about dressings
and bandages, ambulances and stretchers, and fresh batches
of wounded who had been brought into the town and lodged in
deserted empty houses.
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