The retreating Belgians on August 22, 1914, had some adventurous wandering before them.  They had first to cut their way through a body of German troops, then to become involved with a French force near Charleroi.  It took them seven days to reach Rouen by way of Amiens.  There they were embarked for sea transport to Ostend.  At Ostend, they joined the main Belgian army after its retreat from Antwerp.

On Sunday morning, August 23, 1914, the Germans began the bombardment of Fort Suarlee.  This fort repeated the heroic resistance of Fort Boncelles at Liege.  It held out until the afternoon of August 25.  It was apparently then blown up by the explosion of its own magazine, thus again repeating the end of Fort Loncin at Liege.  Meantime the Germans had succeeded in reducing Forts Cognelee and Emines.

The Germans entered Namur on the afternoon of August 23, 1914.  There seems to have been some oversight in the plan, for the advance guard found themselves under fire of their own guns directed upon the citadel and the Grande Place.  This, however, was speedily rectified.  Their behavior was much the same as at Louvain and Brussels.  They marched in with bands playing and singing patriotic songs.  Proclamations were at once issued warning the citizens not to commit any hostile act.  The inhabitants were far too cowed to contemplate anything but submission.  Good discipline was preserved, and though the city took fire that night there is nothing to show it was from German design.  The citizens were induced to come forth from their cellars and hiding places to reopen the cafes and shops.

General von Buelow entered Namur on Monday morning August 24, 1914.  He was accompanied by Field Marshal Baron von der Goltz, recently appointed Governor General of Belgium.  Previous to the former Balkan War he had been employed in reorganizing the Turkish army.  An onlooker in Namur thus describes the German Field Marshal:—­“An elderly gentleman covered with orders, buttoned in an overcoat up to his nose, above which gleamed a pair of enormous spectacles.”

General Michel attributed his defeat to the German siege guns.  The fire was so continuous upon the trenches that it was impossible to hold them, and the forts simply crumpled under the storm of shells.  But back of General Michel’s plea the allied Intelligence Departments lacked efficiency or energy, or both, in not gaining more than a hint, at any rate, of the enormous German siege guns until they were actually thundering at the gates.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VIII

BATTLE OF CHARLEROI

Toward the end of the third week of August, 1914, the atmosphere of every European capital became tense with the realization that a momentous crisis was impending.  It was known that the French-British armies confronted German armies of equal, if not of superior strength.  In Paris and London the military critics wrote optimistically that the Germans were marching into a trap.