must admit that, out of the forty notebooks, or thereabout, that I
have handled, there are six or seven that do not relate any exactions,
either from hypocritical reticence or because there are some regiments
which do not make war in this vile fashion. And there are as many as
three notebooks whose writers, in relating these ignoble things, express
astonishment, indignation, and sorrow. I will not give the names of
these, because they deserve our regard, and I wish to spare them the
risk of being some day blamed or punished by their own.

[Illustration: Figure 10.]

The first, the Private X., who belongs to the Sixty-fifth Infantry,
Regiment of Landwehr, says of certain of his companions in arms, (Fig.
10:)

They do not behave as soldiers, but rather as highwaymen,
bandits, and brigands, and are a dishonor to our regiment and
to our army.

Another, Lieut. Y., of the Seventy-seventh Infantry of Reserves, says:

No discipline, ... the Pioneers are well nigh worthless; as to
the artillery, it is a band of robbers.

The third, Private Z., of the Twelfth Infantry of Reserves, First Corps,
writes, (Fig. 11:)

[Illustration: Figure 11.]

Unfortunately, I am forced to make note of a fact which should
not have occurred, but there are to be found, even in our own
army, creatures who are no longer men, but hogs, to whom
nothing is sacred. One of these broke into a sacristy; it was
locked, and where the Blessed Sacrament was kept. A
Protestant, out of respect, had refused to sleep there. This
man used it as a deposit for his excrements. How is it
possible there should be such creatures? Last night one of the
men of the Landwehr, more than thirty-five years of age,
married, tried to rape the daughter of the inhabitant where
he had taken up his quarters--a mere girl--and when the father
intervened he pressed his bayonet against his breast.

Beyond these three, who are still worthy of the name of soldiers, the
other thirty are all alike, and the same soul (if we can talk of souls
among such as these) animates them low and frantic. I say they are all
about alike, but there are shades of difference. There are some who,
like subtle jurists, make distinctions, blaming here and approving
there--"Dort war ein Exempel am Platze." Others laugh and say "Krieg ist
Krieg," or sometimes they add in French, to emphasize their derision,
"Ja, Ja, c'est l