FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144  
145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>   >|  
by an innocent population on whose ruin or massacre they have resolved. We have many times ascertained the truth of this; here is one among others: One evening the Abbe Colin, Cure of Croismare, was standing near an officer when the report of a gun rang out. The latter cried, "Monsieur le Cure, that is enough to cause you to be shot as well as the Burgomaster, and for a farm to be burned; look, there is one on fire." "Sir," replied the priest, "you are too intelligent not to recognize the sharp sound of your German rifle. For my part, I recognize it." The German did not press the point. Personal liberty, like human life, is the object of complete scorn on the part of the German military authorities. Almost everywhere citizens of every age have been dragged from their homes and led into captivity, many have died or been killed on the way. Arson, still more than murder, forms the usual procedure of our adversaries. It is employed by them either as a means of systematic devastation or as a means of terrorism. The German Army, in order to provide for it, possesses a complete outfit, which comprises torches, grenades, rockets, petrol pumps, fuse-sticks, and little bags of pastilles made of compressed powder which are very inflammable. The lust for arson is manifested chiefly against churches and against monuments which have some special interest, either artistic or historical. In the departments through which we have gone thousands of houses have been burned, but we have only investigated in our inquiry fires which have been occasioned by exclusively criminal intention, and we have not believed it our duty to deal with those that have been caused by shells in the course of violent fighting, or due to circumstances which it has not been possible to determine with absolute certainty, such as those at Villotte-devant-Louppy, Rembercourt, Mogneville, Amblaincourt, Pretz, Louppy-le-Chateau, and other places. The few inhabitants who remained among the ruins furnished us with information in absolute good faith on this subject. We have constantly found definite evidence of theft, and we do not hesitate to state that where a body of the enemy has passed it has given itself up to a systematically organized pillage, in the presence of its leaders, who have even themselves often taken part in it. Cellars have been emptied to the last bottle, safes have been gutted, considerable sums of money have been stolen or extorted; a g
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144  
145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
German
 

burned

 

Louppy

 

complete

 

absolute

 
recognize
 
fighting
 

inflammable

 
violent
 

caused


shells

 

circumstances

 
certainty
 

interest

 
special
 

artistic

 
determine
 
powder
 

historical

 

manifested


investigated

 

inquiry

 

churches

 

thousands

 

monuments

 

occasioned

 

exclusively

 

believed

 

houses

 

intention


chiefly

 
criminal
 

departments

 

presence

 

pillage

 
leaders
 

organized

 
systematically
 

passed

 
stolen

extorted
 

considerable

 
gutted
 
emptied
 

Cellars

 

bottle

 
places
 

inhabitants

 
remained
 

compressed