suffered cruelly and wept bitterly, but she
did not fall down, continuing to go along with me.
While these things were taking place, the Perignon family,
which lived next door to us, was massacred.
When they were no longer shooting at us, I tried to wash my
baby, who was covered with blood, in the brook; but a
soldier prevented me, shouting, "Get away from there."
Finally we got to the road. Meanwhile they were driving M.
Aufiero out of the cellar. The Germans, who spoke French
after a fashion, said to his wife, "Come see your husband
get shot." The poor man, on his knees, asked for mercy, and
as his wife shrieked "My poor Come," the soldiers said to
her, "Shut your mouth." His execution took place very near
us.
The Bavarians sent me, my children, Mme. Aufiero and her
daughter to a meadow near the Pont-de-l'Etang. A general
ordered that we be shot, but I threw myself at his feet,
begging him to be merciful. He consented. At this moment an
officer, wearing a great gray cloak with a red collar, said,
as he pointed to the dead body of my child, "There is one
who will not grow up to fight our men."
The next day, in my flight to Barriere Zeller, an officer
came up and told me that the body of my dead child smelled
badly and that I must get rid of it. Since I could find no
one to make a coffin, I found in the canteen two rabbit
hutches. I fastened one of these to the other, and there I
laid the little body. It was buried in my garden by two
soldiers, and I had to dig the grave myself.
APPENDIX IV
HOW GERMANS OCCUPY THE TERRITORY OF AN ENEMY
In the first days of April, 1916, the following notice, bearing the
signature of the German commander, was posted on all the walls of
Lille, the great town in the north of France which has been occupied
by the Germans since the beginning of the war.
All the inhabitants of the town, except the children under
fourteen years of age, their mothers, and the old men, must
prepare to be transported within an hour and a half.
An officer will decide definitely which persons shall be
conducted to the camps of assembly. For this purpose, all
the inhabitants must assemble in front of their homes, in
case of bad weather they shall be permitted to stay in the
lobbies. The doors of the houses must be
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