only a
few of the dogs were taken captive, the others were immediately
slaughtered. A boy hardly fifteen years old was dragged out of a wet
ditch with a gun in his hand. Before being brought to me, this youthful
swine had been thrashed from head to foot. Besides the men, two women
and a girl were taken.

"Meanwhile a terrible hand-to-hand fight was going on throughout the
long, scattered village. Infantry and artillerists smashed the doors and
windows; no mercy was shown to anyone, and the houses were set alight.
An attempt to storm the church-tower failed because the occupants fired
from above. Bundles of straw were brought, paraffin poured on them, and
the tower set on fire. Above the roar of the flames we could distinctly
hear the shrieks of the murderers shut in there.

"I gave orders to a squad to shoot our prisoners, but a deadly bullet
finished the career of the lying, scoundrelly priest as he was trying to
escape. Our losses were remarkably small, only two men being killed and
a number wounded."[105]

[Footnote 105: Ibid., p. 43-4.]

In all cases where German soldiers asked for water from the inhabitants,
the latter had to take a drink first. "Before tasting the water both man
and wife had to drink first, and as this scene was repeated on
innumerable occasions, it was delightful to observe the comic
desperation with which the people took their involuntary 'water
cure.'"[106]

[Footnote 106: "Mit der Kluck'schen Armee nach Belgien" ("With von
Kluck's Army into Belgium"), by Dr. Jos. Risse, p. 17.]

Dr. Risse's interesting diary contains one or two important passages
illustrating the relation between conquerors and conquered. Like many
other German writers, he saw no hostile act on the part of the civilian
population, but they came to him as rumours. "That night we slept in a
barn. Here we heard that a village near Dahlem had been burned down
because the inhabitants had cut the throat of a sleeping ambulance
attendant.

"On continuing our march we suddenly entered a wide vale. The horizon
was blood-red and huge clouds of smoke drifted heavenwards. On all sides
the villages were in flames. In the last village before Louvain the
sight was terrible in the extreme; houses ablaze; pools of blood in the
street; here and there a dead civilian; pieces of Belgian equipment,
haversacks, boots and trousers lay around; while the inhabitants stood
about with their hands raised above their heads.

"It was said that h