ic to M. Mourey's natural fears,
and generous enough to write and sign a proclamation forbidding
his troops to lay their hand upon the palace. He, too, went his
way. Von Kluck's Quartermaster-General seized the opportunity of
making a private levy of 5,000f. upon the town before he sped
like Gehazi after his master's chariot. Then ensued the brief
reign of lesser men, stupid, brutal, blustering, bullying,
insulting, because they feared a civilisation which they could
not understand.

I think we know such men, and many privates know such men, elsewhere
than in the German army. Germany may have cultivated them in greater
numbers--that is highly probable--but they are rife everywhere, and
under favourable circumstances they thrive exceedingly.

Their insolent arrogance culminated in a certain aide-de-camp,
who arrived post-haste to say that the Palace must be instantly
made ready to receive an Excellence _par excellence_. A man of
imagination this aide-de-camp, for when at his command M. Mourey
showed him over the palace and pointed out the gaps in the
collections made by the soldiers' pilfery, he said with an
all-explanatory air, "But why didn't you get souvenirs ready for
the officers?" The Excellence whom this right Brandenburger
heralded was no less than the Kaiser himself, and M. Mourey is
convinced that it is to the Imperial intention that the safety
of Compiegne is owing. It may be: but we prefer to think that
honourable foes such as Von Kluck and Von Marwitz had their
share in the unusual consummation.[61]

"The Irish Nuns at Ypres" gives an account of their experiences by a
member of the Community. In a review (May 27, 1915), the _Times_
Literary Supplement says:

For us in England it is hard to realise the feeling of sickening
anxiety with which, on October 7, these defenceless ladies
witnessed the arrival in Ypres of the devastators of Belgium. On
this occasion, apart from a certain amount of looting, the
Germans behaved "pretty civilly," and the Abbey had nothing to
complain of but want of bread.

Another French account of the invaders in Northern France is given by
Gabriele and Margerita Yerta, "Six Women and the Invasion." Their
experiences were variable. "It is clear," writes a reviewer in the
_Nation_, "that Herr Major, and 'Barlu,' and 'Crafleux' and the two
'model Prussians,' who replenished