The left wing of the French, which was to the west of Mons, was supported by the English troops, all too weak to sustain the pressure of the tremendous odds which began to surge against them, and realizing this perilous state of affairs, the French Generalissimo decreed that the north-west corner of France was untenable, and that the main army of defence should withdraw into a stronger and closer format Tt was then that the great panic began, increasing in speed and terror during the end of last week. I was in the midst of it and saw unforgettable scenes of the enormoi tragedy. It was a flight of hundreds and thousands of families from St. Omer and Roubaix, Bethune, Donal, Valenciennes, and Arras, who were driven away from their northern homes by the menace of approaching Uhlans. They are still being hunted by fear from place to place, where they can find no shelter and no permanent safety. The railways have been choked with them, and in these long fugitive trains, which pose through stations, there is no food or drink The poor runaways, weary, filthy, and exhausted, spend long ud nights shunted on to side lines, while troop trains pass and bass, and are held up in towns Where they can find no means of existence because the Inst civilian train has left,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.