Page:The Invasion of 1910.djvu/491

 crossed out. Thus the papers were frequently ridiculous in their opinions and reports.

The drawn game continued.

On one side of the Thames the Germans held complete possession, while on the other the people of London were defiant behind their barricaded bridges. West London was occupied in building barricades in all quarters to prevent any further entry into London, while Von Kronhelm, with his inborn cunning, was allowing the work to proceed. In this, however, the German Commander-in-Chief did not display his usual caution, as will be seen in later chapters of this history.

Once it was rumoured that the enemy intended to besiege the barricades at the bridges by bringing their field howitzers into play, but very soon it became apparent that Von Kronhelm, with discreet forbearance, feared to excite further the London populace.

The fact that the Lord Mayor had been deported had rendered them irritable and viciously antagonistic, while the terms of the indemnity demanded, now known everywhere—as they had been published in papers at Brighton, Southampton, Bristol, and other places—had aroused within the hearts of Londoners a firm resolve to hold their own at no matter what cost.

Beyond all this remained the knowledge of Gerald Graham's movement—that gigantic association, the League of Defenders, which had for its object the freeing of England from the grip of the now detested eagle of Germany.

Daily the League issued its bulletins, notices, manifestoes, and proclamations, all of which were circulated throughout South London. South Coast resorts were now crowded to excess by fugitive Londoners, as well as towns inland. Accommodation for them all was, of course, impossible, but everywhere were encampments over the Kentish hop fields and the Sussex pastures.

Some further idea of life in South London at this time may be obtained from the personal narrative of Joseph Cane, a tram driver, in the employ of the London