I have just returned from the frontier village of Mesch, where I saw the most magnificent and impressive sight of a vast German army. From the hill on which I was standing I could see the German troops come up before me, artillery, cavalry, infantry, and all, while behind the hill I could hear the boom of gun fire.
As the Holsteiner Dragoons passed I could see on their colour the date 1871. Then I saw fifteen farmers with bent heads led forth as prisoners. Their crime was that they had defended their homes.
Then an aeroplane flies overhead. Is it German or Belgian? Will it drop bombs? It passes on. And then I am approached by German soldiers, who point revolvers at me, and order me to retire, for in my eagerness I had stepped beyond the Dutch frontier post.
In a still later message he writes:
The Belgians have destroyed several bridges on the light railway from Tongeren to Bilsen.
Several important despatches appeared on Monday, August 10th, giving particulars of the movements of troops during Saturday and Sunday. There were no movements by the Germans for three days. Beyond the range of the forts' fire they rested, recovering strength. The threatened attack along the river Ourthe was suspended. These facts, in the view of the Belgian General Staff, denoted insufficient preparations and showed that the German concentration had not been fully carried out. The situation, in their opinion, gave every assurance that merited punishment would follow the invasion.
Liège was invested by the Germans on Sunday night, but this was expected, and was regarded as unimportant. The forts were known to be ready for further and prolonged resistance, while the foe's stock of projectiles was evidently short. The Belgian field forces, apart from the Liège garrison, were massing in the right directions. The portion of Belgian Luxemburg invaded by the Germans was being cleared of them by the advancing French troops, who marched forward with the greatest speed and energy and got good assistance from a division of Belgian cavalry.
Many trains conveyed more French troops to the front via Brussels.
King Albert reviewed and congratulated the triumphant Third Division, which had been keeping the foe at bay at Liège.
Liège city possessed an old disused fortress, which the Belgians blew up to prevent the Germans from availing themselves of it.