Book 1: Chapter 11, At the Window Summary

The author has a drink of whiskey, eats, and changes out of his wet clothes. He looks out of his study window at the overturned carts, dead bodies, and desolateness. As he is looking out the window he sees an artilleryman and calls him inside. The artilleryman has not eaten since the previous day. The author feeds him while the artilleryman explains brokenly, the events of the night before.

At first, the Martian's moved the second cylinder covered by metal disks, from the commons. These disks later rose into the tripods the author had seen. The artilleryman's horse had fallen from beneath him and there was gunfire heard behind him. The rest of his group had been killed. He was stuck under a pile of charred bodies. He had been hiding from the tripod machines...