And from this paper my brother read that catastrophic dispatch of
the Commander-in-Chief:

"The Martians are able to discharge enormous clouds of a black and
poisonous vapour by means of rockets.  They have smothered our
batteries, destroyed Richmond, Kingston, and Wimbledon, and are
advancing slowly towards London, destroying everything on the way.  It
is impossible to stop them.  There is no safety from the Black Smoke
but in instant flight."

That was all, but it was enough.  The whole population of the great
six-million city was stirring, slipping, running; presently it would
be pouring _en masse_ northward.