"All night we worked away, making barricades on Westminster Bridge, supported by others in Parliament Street, a few old officers directing the workers, but no general plan of defence seemed to be carried out, as there was no general anywhere, they had all gone out with the army, and had been killed, captured, or prevented from retreating on the capital.
"At last morning came, and we could soon hear the sound of distant firing, which gradually came nearer and nearer, till the attack was commenced on all the bridges at once, from London bridge to Putney.
"Without artillery it was impossible to stem the advancing tide of Germans, they carried the bridges very quickly, shooting and bayonetting the defenders in thousands; now they surged into the bottom of Parliament Street, and as I sat on one of the bronze lions at the foot of the Nelson column encouraging everyone to die rather than yield, I could see the battle slowly coming up to the Horse Guards, and also that the Houses of Parliament were on Are.
Waterloo Bridge was gone, and the enemy now began to take us in Hank from the Strand, whilst others having passed Vauxhall were already swarming the parks and Belgravia, and in possession of Buckingham Palace.
What could an undisciplined rabble do against such a converging host of trained soldiers. The English mob kept up a weak and almost useless fire, and only stood to be slaughtered; I reserved the shots in my revolver till sure of my men, and had the luck to shoot two Germans, then the surging mass carried me away into Pall Mall, where I stumbled over a dead body, and was getting up again when a fierce looking German officer tried to finish me off with his sword, but I shot him dead, and a sudden idea Hashing across my mind, as the surging combatants left me free for a moment. I drew his body inside the doorway of a house which seemed to be deserted, then shutting the door, I stripped off his clothes, and in a very few minutes had so dressed myself in his uniform that anyone would have taken me for a German, now, thought I to myself, I speak German like a native, so as resistance is no longer possible, I will join the enemy in sacking and looting my own native city, so as to see what it is like.
"When I emerged I had smeared my face with blood, and my uniform was also bloodstained. The street was full of corpses, all English, except a single German here and there.
A fresh regiment of the enemy was just hurrying past, eager to get to the front, or join in the loot, to judge by their excited faces. Seeing, as he thought, a wounded compatriot, an officer offered me his brandy flask, asking if I was much hurt. The draught gave me fresh courage, and I assured him it was nothing serious, but that I had no doubt been struck down and left for dead, but had recovered myself, and now felt able to join the fight again.
"'We're ordered to occupy Belgrave Square, and prevent the houses being plundered,' he replied, 'but it will be rare fun, the fellows can't be restrained, none of us have had a woman for a month, we shall ravish them first, and protect the women afterwards. The English dogs would serve us the same if they had the chance. Come along with us, my father is our colonel, and a rare old boy to enjoy himself in war time!' "What sights I saw as I went along, numbers of straggling soldiers were already plundering everywhere; at the bottom of St. James' Street three of them had got so many pretty girls tied back to back to a lamp-post, with scarcely a rag to cover them, and were fucking them furiously, their blood-stained pricks showing how the poor girls had been ravished, their shrieks and cries were awful, whilst I shall never forget the shame, horror, and humiliation depicted on their countenances.
"'That's a fine sight, my boys!' shouted our old grey-headed colonel, 'let's make haste to our billet, we shall find real ladies there to amuse ourselves with.' "The men and officers all cheered, and we went on at the double quick, taking no notice of the horrible scenes and carnage through which we passed, and at last we reached our destination, and as luck would have it, the very first house attacked belonged to old Dufferstones.
Our colonel, with his son and several other officers, established themselves in the drawing rooms, where they found a profusion of wine and refreshments set out as if for expected guests.
"'I'll wager there's ladies not far off, no men would have had the sense to make such provision for enemies; have the house thoroughly searched, and bring our hostesses here as soon as possible!' ordered the chief with a chuckle of delight, 'Mein Gott fur Kaiser und Vaterland,' as he drained his glass of champagne, and began to attack a fine game pie.
'Look sharp all, so as to be ready for the ladies when they're found, my old prick wants something extra piquante to excite him.' "All the while we could still hear the infernal din of distant fighting, gradually receding in the distance, but presently we heard several piercing shrieks, evidently from the cellars of the mansion, and very soon an old sergeant announced to the colonel that they had secured three beautiful young ladies, besides several female servants.
"'Very well, bring the ladies here, and keep the other women for yourselves down below, but be gentle, if only done properly no end of men can hurt a girl,' replied the colonel, then turning to me, 'Ah, sir, you're a stranger, so I will just tell you an amusing thing that occurred when the regiment I was quartered at a country village in Pomerania not long ago.'
'Well, a lot of our boys attended the annual fair, and got hold of one of the wenches, everyone enjoying her in turn till they let her go.' "'You would have thought she would have complained of the outrage, but nothing of the kind. Her brother hearing of it in some way, at once taxed her with having had nineteen soldiers at the fair. "So I did," she replied, "and what do you think my affair got so excited at their coming on one after the other that the lips of my cunt were as stiff as the rim of that saucepan on the fire; it was delightful, I didn't mind it, and will have them again some day, so you just keep to your own business."
"Here the sergeant, who had been respectfully waiting till his superior had finished, informed us that they had found an old gentleman, evidently the father of the English ladies.
" 'Tie his hands behind his back, and bring him with his daughters, and sergeant, see if you can make two or three good Hogging instruments out of anything you can find in the house,' were the orders he received.
"We had not long to wait before the soldiers brought in the captives, three beautiful girls and the old man, who I at once recognised as Lord Dufferstones and Ladies Nora, Kathleen, and Ellen Dufferstones, his idolized daughters, none of them seemed to recognise me.
"The colonel, in excellent English, at once enquired of his lordship who they were.
"Lord Dufferstones, his face as white as his gray hair, and in a dreadful fright, great drops of perspiration could be seen hanging in beads on his forehead, or trickling down his grimy face (he had been found in a coal cellar). 'Have mercy, Excellency, I'm a non-combatant, and the dear girls are my loved children, you can have any ransom you like to demand for our safety and protection.' " 'Indeed,' replied the chief, 'you English are awfully rich, and the whole regiment must share in the prize money, so I suppose you can afford a million, eh?' "'Oh dear no, your Excellency!' cried the poor old fellow, falling on his knees. 'I haven't a tenth part of that. Oh, spare me and my girls, take your jewellery and all you can 6nd in the house!' " 'Pooh! pooh, man! I'm inclined to be reasonable, but it can't be less than half a million at least, if you don't agree to that your daughters shall frig you till you confess where the money is to come from,' replied the colonel, with a grin of sardonic pleasure, especially when he noticed the blushing horror of the young ladies at his outrageous words.
"Lord Dufferstones was ordered to stand up, and told that it was useless for him to persist in his lies, about inability to pay, to which our chief added his opinion, 'that probably the daughters of such an old liar were only mock modest after all.' "The old man trembled like an aspen in abject fear of what might be going to happen, whilst the girls hid their crimson faces from sight, and sobbed with indignant shame.