It
seemed impossible to pass, owing to the wreckage strewn across the road.
"Try to take it," said Dr. Munro, who was sitting beside the chauffeur.
We took it, bumping over heaps of debris, and then swept around into the
square. It was a spacious place, with the Town Hall at one side of
it--or what was left of the Town Hall; there was only the splendid shell
of it left, sufficient for us to see the skeleton of a noble building
which had once been the pride of Flemish craftsmen. Even as we turned
toward it parts of it were falling upon the ruins already on the ground.
I saw a great pillar lean forward and then topple down. A mass of
masonry crashed from the portico. Some stiff, dark forms lay among the
fallen stones; they were dead soldiers. I hardly glanced at them, for we
were in search of the living.
Our cars were brought to a halt outside the building, and we all climbed
down. I lighted a cigarette, and I noticed two of the other men fumble
for matches for the same purpose. We wanted something to steady our
nerves. There was never a moment when shell fire was not bursting in
that square. Shrapnel bullets whipped the stones. The Germans were
making a target of the Town Hall and dropping their shells with dreadful
exactitude on either side of it.
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