And out of the darkness leapt the little land, with its spires and
trees, aghast with terror, still and distinct, and the sea, tumbled with
anger, red-foaming like a sea of blood....
Over the populous country below went a strange multitudinous crying and
a flurry of alarm bells... .
The surviving aeroplanes turned about and fled out of the sky, like
things that suddenly know themselves to be wicked....
Through a dozen thunderously flaming gaps that no water might quench,
the waves came roaring in upon the land....
Section 8
'We had cursed our luck,' says Barnet, 'that we could not get to our
quarters at Alkmaar that night. There, we were told, were provisions,
tobacco, and everything for which we craved. But the main canal from
Zaandam and Amsterdam was hopelessly jammed with craft, and we were glad
of a chance opening that enabled us to get out of the main column and
lie up in a kind of little harbour very much neglected and weedgrown
before a deserted house. We broke into this and found some herrings in
a barrel, a heap of cheeses, and stone bottles of gin in the cellar;
and with this I cheered my starving men. We made fires and toasted the
cheese and grilled our herrings. None of us had slept for nearly forty
hours, and I determined to stay in this refuge until dawn and then if
the traffic was still choked leave the barge and march the rest of the
way into Alkmaar.
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