him, besides,
that they received a premium of four marks whenever they brought their
commanding officers a piece of jewelry.

In this commune, Mme. X., a most respectable young woman, was violated
by two soldiers in succession in the absence of her husband, who is
with the colors. One of these two men ransacked a chest of drawers
while his comrade was committing his crime.

At Mesnil-sur-Bulles on the evening of the 4th of September two
Germans arrived in a carriage and one on a bicycle and went to the
house of the Deputy Mayor, M. Gustave Queste. As the latter did not
understand them, he asked his cousin, M. Queste, Professor at the
Lycee of Amiens, to act as interpreter for him. After having fulfilled
this office the professor returned home. A few minutes afterward,
hearing a shot, he went out to ascertain what was happening. He found
himself in the presence of one of the three soldiers to whom he had
just spoken in his cousin's house. This man, who was drunk, fired at
him and killed him.

The same three soldiers, passing through Nourard-le-Franc, set fire to
seven houses with torches which they had brought with them in their
carriage. A few hours before their arrival at Mesnil-sur-Bulles a
Uhlan patrol had already made a reconnoissance in this commune.
Troopers entered the house of M. Amedee Queste, burst open a door,
broke the furniture, and stole a quantity of jewelry as well as a sum
of 60 francs.

At Choisy-au-Bac the Germans, who had been in the village since the
31st of August, willfully set fire on the 1st and 2d of September to
forty-five houses under the grossly false allegation that they had
been fired upon, and previously, in the presence of their officers,
gave themselves up to a general pillage, the product of which was
carried away in vehicles stolen from the inhabitants. Two army
doctors, wearing the brassards of the Red Cross, themselves pillaged
the house of Mme. Binder.

M. Morel, working carpenter, who was in his garden, was shot in the
groin by a soldier who was passing on the road. He died next day. Four
young men were taken as hostages and led away on the 8th of September.
One of them was able to escape. His comrade, Rene Leclere, is said to
have been shot at Besme, in the Department of the Aisne; as for the
other two, no one knows what has become of them.

At Compiegne, which was occupied by the enemy from the 31st of August
to the 12th of September, the chateau suffered comparatively l