The Invasion

a sudden attack upon the North Sea Fleet at Rosyth, and a fierce cruiser battle, in which we h

d by Mr. Henry Alexander, J.P.,-the Mayor of Maldon, who had succeeded in escaping from the town,-to Captain Wilfred Quare,

d as f

hought we heard the sound of shots fired somewhere in the town. We couldn't make anything at all of it, and as we had so nearly finished the round, we thought we would do so before going to inquire about it. I was making my approach to the final hole

inks from the direction of the town came three men in uniform-soldiers, evidently. I had often been in Germa

ruining one of our best greens. All three of them pointed big, ugly repeating pistols at us, and the leader, a con

HE K

LAMA

OUT THE AR

ARD

Council and notified by the Proclamation, if Parliament be not then sitting, to order that the Army Reserve shall be called out on permanent service; and by any such Proclamation to order a Secretary of State from

resent state of Public Affairs and the extent of the demands on Our Military Forces for the protection

our Principal Secretaries of State, from time to time to give, and when given, to revoke or vary such directions as may seem necessary or proper for calling out Our Army Reserve, or all or any of the men

ptember, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine

VE THE

ngerous, Herr Lieutenan

ch of us was the Mayor, and condescended to explain that I was required in Maldon by the of

ellow trying to take a rise out of me by masquerading as a German o

ng, since I did not see any way of escape, and in any case wa

iend, do you-he lives out

e,' rejoined the German. 'It isn't likely we're going to

o we started off at a sharp walk, holding

river, a small picket of blue-coated German infantry. The

you get here?' I co

I was still further astonished-if it were possible after such a morning-to

g on the steps, who turned round and entered the building as we came up. We followe

s white moustache, 'do you know that I've a great mi

all inclined t

ay I inquire in what way I have incurred the

o you allow your miserable Volunte

e, I should have no cognisance of anything that has happened within the last two hours, as I have been down on the

ersisted my interrogator. 'Why did y

answered; 'but in any case you must understand that a mayor has little or no authority in this countr

the news of their presence. They had not noticed the little lane leading to the golf course, and so I had gone down without meeting any of them, although they had actually got a picket just beyond the railway arch at that time. They had completed their cordon before there was any general alarm in the town, but at the first reliable rumour it seems that young Shand, of the Essex Volunteers, had contrived to get together twenty or thirty of his men in their uniforms and foolishly opened fire on a German picket down by St. Mary's Church. They fell back, but were almost instantly reinforced by a whole company that had just landed, and our men, rushing forward, had been ridden into by some cavalry that came up a side street. They were dispersed, a couple of them were killed, and several wounded, a

men came in by train from Wickford way. So it went on all day, until the whole town was in a perfect uproar. The infantry were b

st. At this corner they started to dig entrenchments just after one o'clock, and soon officers and orderlies were busy all round the town, plotting, measuring, and setting up mar

aff, though in what capacity he did not say. Thinking it was just as well to make the best of a bad job, I invited him to lunch. He said he had to be off. He, however, introduced me to three friends of his in the 101st Grenad

ly seemed not to have heard of my adventure with the choleric colonel. Our three foreigners soon made themselves very much at home, but as they were undeniably gentlemen, they contrived to be about as agreeable as could be expected under t

owever, it was 'Hobson's choice'-that or nothing. The Germans soothed them by saying that the British Army would be smashed in a couple of weeks, and the defrayment of such bills would be among the conditions of peace. The troops generally seemed to be well-behaved, and treated those inhabitants with whom they came in contact in an unexceptionable manner. They did not see very much of them, however, as they were kept hard at work all day with their entre

ning I woke up to find three huge gun-pits yawning in my garden, which looked to the northward. During breakfast there was a great rattling and rumbling in the street without, an

de of Beeleigh Road, and round the corner by the Old Barracks. The high tower of the disused Church of St. Peter

f affairs in the town of

ntry, on Tuesday night was intense. Scotney's story o

Monument in Trafalgar Square, it was an ominous sign to the pa

rdly any troops had as yet assembled at their places of concentration. The whole of the east of England was helplessly in the invader's hands. From Newcastle had come terrible reports o

g fire, disaster, and death everywhere. The inhabitants, compelled to fly with only the clothes they wore, had scattered all over Northumberland and Durham,

places to act as transports, while the Elswick works-which surely ought to have

tem was utterly disorganised, business everywhere was at a complete deadl

e panic. There, as well as at every branch bank all over the metropolis, had occurred a wild rush to withdraw d

Southwark the whole population were already in a state of semi-starvation. But worst of all, the a

the invasion, for reports were so rapidly coming in from ev

d Grimsby, where the Mayor had been unable to pay the indemnity

the IXth German Army Corps, with General von Kronhelm, the Generalissimo of the German Army. This Army Corps, consisting of about 40,000 men, was divided into the 17th Division, commande

TI

SUBJECTS RESID

LH

OYAL SUBJECT

n subjects, whether liable to military service or not, shall join our arms at any headquart

to obey this our Command

MPEROR'S

ccles, Sept

KRON

Imperial German

ION POSTED BY UNKNOWN HA

men and Hamburg Infantry Regiments, the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg's Grenadiers, the Grand Duke's Fusiliers, the Lübeck Regiment No. 162,

latter regiments being billeted in Lowestoft, while the cavalry brigade forming the screen across from Leiston by Wilby to Castle Hill were Queen Wilhelmina's Hanov

es between the East coast and Holland and Germany, already described in the first chapter, had never been cut at all. They had simply been held by the enemy's a

to the German coast, escorted by cruisers; therefore the plan was u

nd of the sea in time to preve

as nobody would see plays while in that excited state. Every shop was closed, and every railway station was filled to ove

oon they laughed at the report as a mere journalistic sensation, but ere the sun set the hard, terrible truth was forced upon them, and now, on Tue

the iron heel of the invader, whose obje

erious question upon every one's to