s is
the case particularly at Revigny, Sommeilles, Triaucourt, Bulainville,
Clermont-en-Argonne, and Villers-aux-Vents.

The Germans having completely sacked the houses of Revigny and carried
off their booty on vehicles, burned two-thirds of the town during
three consecutive days from the 6th to the 9th of September,
sprinkling the walls with petrol by means of hand pumps, and throwing
into the houses little bags full of compressed powder in tablets. We
have been furnished with specimens of these little bags and these
tablets, as well as with fuse sticks of inflammable matter which had
been left by the incendiaries.

The church, which was classed as a historical monument, and the Mairie
with all its archives, have been destroyed.

Many inhabitants, among whom were children, have been taken away as
hostages. They were, however, set at liberty next day, with the
exception of M. Wladimir Thomas.

Few localities in the Department of the Meuse have suffered as much as
the Commune of Sommeilles. It is nothing but a heap of ruins, having
been completely burned on the 6th of September by a regiment of German
infantry bearing the number fifty-one. The place was set on fire with
help of machinelike bicycle pumps with which many of the soldiers were
furnished.

This unhappy village was the scene of a terrible drama. At the
commencement of the fire Mme. X., whose husband is with the colors,
took refuge in the cellar of M. et Mme. Adnot, together with these
latter and their four children, aged respectively 11, 5, 4, and 1-1/2
years. A few days afterward the bodies of all these unfortunate people
were discovered in the middle of a pool of blood. Adnot had been shot,
Mme. X. had her breast and right arm cut off; the little girl of 11
had a foot severed, the little boy of 5 had his throat cut. The woman
X. and the little girl appeared to have been raped.

At Villers-aux-Vents, on the 8th of September, German officers invited
the inhabitants who had not yet fled to leave their dwellings, warning
them that the village was about to be burned, because, they alleged,
three French soldiers had dressed themselves in civilian clothes;
others gave the pretext that an installation of wireless telegraphy
had been found in a house. The threat was carried out so rigorously
that one house alone remains standing.

At Vaubecourt, where six dwelling houses were burned by the
Wuerttemburgers, fire was set to a barn with straw piled up by the
s