pleasantly surprised on his return than
the hotel proprietor. In his home, French marauders and plunderers have
destroyed and devastated the entire contents. It is impossible to
comprehend the senselessness of this conduct, for which no reasons of
military necessity can be advanced.

"Ancient family pictures which could not be taken out of their frames
have been ruined by bayonet stabs, and from the shape of the cuts they
were certainly the work of French bayonets. Even the library, which
contained a valuable collection of old prints, had been robbed.

"Not far from this scene of desolation stands Chateau Bellevue, where
King William met Napoleon in 1870. There, too, the traces of French
plunderers are painfully evident; it was left to the 'Hun-Kaiser' to
save this historic spot from complete annihilation. In September Wilhelm
II. visited the chateau and seeing the signs of rapacity, ordered the
place to be strictly guarded to prevent further desecration."[169]

[Footnote 169: Ibid., pp. 22-3.]

It did not occur to Herr Koehrer to connect the carousals with the
plundering; in one sentence he admits that French soldiers respected the
wine-cellars and in the next accuses them of stealing books, etc. Every
German writer, in describing the German advance, comments on the immense
number of haversacks, weapons and equipment thrown away by the French in
their "wild flight." Yet they desire their readers to believe that the
same soldiers had time to rob and destroy, indeed, carry their plunder
with them!

Since September no French troops have been in the district, yet the
Kaiser found it necessary to place guards round Chateau Bellevue. Is it
not more reasonable to assume that the precaution was taken against the
predatory instincts of his own soldiery, who, admittedly, are in
occupation of the province?

Herr Koehrer finds it almost beneath his dignity to reply to charges of
barbarism and Hunnism; yet he devotes several pages to the art of
white-washing. "The inhabitants who remained in their homes, and those
who have returned since the flight--unfortunately it is only a small
part of the entirety--have recognized long ago that the German soldier
is not a barbarian. The terrible distress which prevails among the
French is often enough relieved by the generosity of the German troops.
Throngs of women and children from the filthy villages of the Argonne
and the Ardennes gather round our field-kitchens and regularly receive