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OSTEND BOMBARDED 283
Fate is indeed inscrutable. Why should he, who saw the
danger and was on the point of seeking a safer place, be over-
taken by death, whilst we, who stopped to observe the spectacle
from another room, were spared ? I was told afterwards that
our post had been far from safe. In a confined space the risk
is always far greater than out in the open. Strictly speaking
the gunners at the street corners were far safer than we. So it
came to pass that the visitors at the Littoral had no reason to
complain of the inhospitable treatment they received at the
Majestic. If the German naval officers had been well received
there, some of us might well have shared Dr. Lippe’s fate.
A great change suddenly came over Ostend with the altered
situation. Counsels were divided as to what to do. Most
people seemed to think that the town would be exposed to
renewed firing, but others thought it unlikely that the night
would bring a fresh bombardment. Orders were issued that
nobody, not even the soldiers, was to be allowed on the front
without special permission. All of the frontage looking on to
the sea was to be cleared of people, excepting the guards at
the street corners. In the evening and at night there must
be no light whatever in the windows looking on to the sea.
My friends at the Littoral therefore decided to move over to
the Hotel de la Couronne opposite the railway station, where
a room was also prepared for me. Our luggage was thereupon
transferred to our new abode in two baggage carts.
We ourselves remained, however, at the Littoral until the
evening, and some of us sat in the dark to keep Lieut. Haak
company, as he had been ordered to take a battery to the zone
beyond Middelkerke. He ate his supper, smoked his cigarette,
bade us good-bye and started off with his sailors, horses and
guns. The rest of us took our supper at the usual time in the
dimly lit lobby, whereupon we said good-bye to the amiable
proprietor and servants, and brought our memorable visit in
the house to an end. From the corner of the Rue du Cerf we
cast a glance westward, where the sky was lit up by the fire
from the British guns. Then we marched off to La Couronne
through the dim and silent streets in a darkness unbroken
but for the light from an occasional lamp invisible from the
sea.
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