st days of it, came the atrocities
and destruction of Sermaize. In the very act of the defeat which has
pinned him and began the process of his destruction he was attempting
yet a further repetition of these unnameable things at Senlis under the
very gates of Paris.

Then came the months when he felt less secure. The whole thing was at
once toned down by order. Pillage was reduced to isolated cases, and
murder also. Few children suffered.

A recovery of confidence throughout his Eastern successes last summer
renewed the crimes. Poland is full of them, and the Serbian land as
well.

In general, you have throughout these months of his ordeal a regular
succession, of excess in vileness when he is confident, of restraint in
it when he is touched by fear.

This effect of fear upon the dull soul is a characteristic familiar to
all men who know their Prussian from history, particularly the wealthier
governing classes of Prussia. It is a characteristic which those who are
in authority during this war will do well to bear in mind. Properly
used, that knowledge may be made an instrument of victory.

HILAIRE BELLOC.

[Illustration: BERNHARDIISM

"It's all right. If I hadn't done it some one else might."]

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FROM LIEGE TO AIX-LA-CHAPELLE

Moreover, by the means of Wisdom I shall obtain immortality, and
leave behind me an everlasting memorial to them that come after me.

"I shall set the people in order, and the nations shall be subject
unto me.

"Horrible tyrants shall be afraid, when they do but hear of me; I
shall be found good among the multitude, and valiant in war."
(Wisdom viii. 13, 14, 15.)

* * * * *

Wisdom and Wisdom alone could have painted this terrible picture the
most terrible perhaps which Raemaekers has ever done and yet the
simplest. That he should have dared to leave almost everything to the
imagination of the beholder is evidence of the wonderful power which he
exercises over the mind of the people. Each of us knows what is in that
goods-van and we shudder at its hideous hidden freight, fearing lest it
may be disclosed before our eyes. Wisdom is but another name for supreme
genius. So apposite are the verses which are quoted here from "The
Wisdom of Solomon" in the "Apocrypha" that they seem almost to have been
w