The Carlisle independent., 1918-08-29

pected either to return or begin a bonn bardment at any moment and all the inhabitants who sported cellars were hiding in them. The rest were trying to get out of town with their belong ings as best they could.
 On reaching our objective we made straight for the Hotel de Vile, where we were admitted and after a short wait taken to the burgomaster. We questioned him as to news, for we had been instructed to pick up any infor- nation he might have as to conditions. But we did not get much, for he could not get about because of the Germans, who had made it a policy to terrorize the people of the town.
 We had just got into the car and were about to start when the burgo- master himself came running out. He 1 ordered us to leave the car there and f said he would direct us where to go. i He insisted that we go on foot. but l could not understand when he tried ] to explain why.
 | We soon saw the probable reason ! for the burgomaster's refusal to ride in the car. All around for about a mile the roads were heavily mined and ! small red flags on iron slaves were stuck between the cobblestones, as warnings not to put in much time around those places. Also, there were | notices stuck up all around warning | people of the mines and forbidding heavy carts to pass. When we got off the road I breathed again!
 After great deal of questioning we | finally reached our destination and made our report to the local command ant. We told him all we could and in | turn received various information ! from him. We were then taken over l to the hotel. Here we read a few i Paris newspapers, that were several | weeks old, until about eight, when we had dinner, and fine dinner it was, 1 too.
 After we had eaten all we could. and wished for more room in the hold, we l went out into the garden and warned l while with some gendarmes, and | then went to bed. We had big room 1 on the third floor front. We had just ! turned in, and were all set for a good nights rest, when there was an explo- sion of a different kind from any ! had heard before, and we and the bed rocked about like a canoe in the wake of a stern-wheeler.
 There were seven more explosions, and then they stopped, though we nf oh iy1n at some distance away. Bartel said it must be the forts, and after some argu- | ment I agreed with him. He said that the Germans must have tried an ad vance under cover of a bombardment, and that as soon as the forts got into action the Germans breezed. We were not worried much, so we did not get out of bed.
 A few minutes later we heard foot steps on the roof, and then woman in a window across the street, asking gendarme whether it was safe to go back to bed. Then I got up and took 9 look into the street. There were a lot of people standing around talking, but it was not interesting enough to keep
 
 It seemed about the middle of the night when Bartel called me, but he said it was time to get out and get to work. We found he had made a poor guess, for when we were half dressed he looked at his watch and it was only quarter past seven, but we decided to stay up, since we were that far along, and then go down and cruise for breakfast.
 When we got downstairs and found some of the hotel people it took them long time to get it through our heads that there had been some real excite ment during the night. The explosions were those of bombs dropped by Zeppelin, which had sailed over the city.
 The first bomb had fallen less than two hundred yards from where we slept. No wonder the bed rocked It had struck narrow three-story house around the corner from the hotel, and had blown it to bits. Ten people had been killed outright, and a number died later. The bomb tore a. fine hole and hurled pieces of itself several hun -dred yards. The street itself was filled with rocks, and a number of houses were down, and others wreck ed. When we got out into the street and talked with some army men we found that even they were surprised by the force of the explosion.
 We learned that the Zepp had sailed not more than five hundred feet above the town. Its motor had been stopped just before the first bomb was let go, and it had slid along perfectly silent and with all lights out. The purr that we had thought was machine guns. after the eighth explosion, was the starting of the motor, as the Zepp got out of range of the guns that were be- ing set for the attack.
 The last bomb had struck in large square. It tore a hole in the coble- stone pavement about thirty feet