"I have enough boches. I mustered them all yesterday and told them that if their number kept on increasing I would send them all back. You will agree that it is impossible to keep a strict count under these conditions!"
I saw Admiral Ronarc'h for the first time to-day.
All morning the city of Nieuport was bombarded with shells of a very large caliber, crushing and enveloping the poor little Flemish homes in great clouds of brick-dust and smoke. The ground trembled. Our Marine Fusiliers[2] must have paid them back in full, for they returned a heavy fire from the large guns of the fortress.
I arrived at Nieuport-Baths along the river Yser with Captain Ricard, who said to me:
"With all that racket, to-day, we are sure to find the Admiral and Commandant Delage----"
At the moment we reached the locks we were well serenaded--the shells literally rained around us. At regular intervals the larger ones burst in the city. Abject ruins--I no longer recognized this once lively little city which I visited during my childhood, dead and deserted to-day!
Finally we came, about four o'clock, to the admiral's shelter, where we found him, with Commandant Delage and the chaplain.
I was received with smiles and hearty handshakes; on similar days one is always sure to be received by the admiral in a most charming manner.
"Lucky chap," he said, "well have you chosen the day of your first visit to Nieuport. What a bombardment, hey! fortunately all goes well, practically no losses--that right, Delage?"
At that moment a shell burst so close that pictures were torn from the walls and a chair was turned upside down. A cloud of dust spouted through the ventilating shaft--at the same time we heard a rumbling of falling walls, the clattering of splintered glass and broken tiling falling on the ground.
[Illustration: Shell hole in the courtyard of Admiral Ronarc'h's commanding post in Nieuport.]
We had, for our protection, an arch made of half-thicknesses of bricks. If we must be struck, then we should have, at least, the opportunity of not suffering very long!
Each told his story, tales of the sea and of the war--then--that was not all, there was a programme of work to accomplish, and we at once set about the task.