courtyard of the farm de la Borde, which is a little distance off, a
German soldier, without any motive, killed by a rifle shot the young
farm servant, Nicholas Michel, aged 17.

On Aug. 20, when the inhabitants sought refuge in the cellars from the
bombardment, the Germans came up after having fired upon each other by
mistake and entered the town toward midday.

According to the account given by one of the inhabitants, the German
officers asserted that the French were torturing the wounded by
cutting off their limbs and plucking out their eyes. They were then in
a state of terrible excitement. That day and part of the next the
German soldiers gave themselves over to the most abominable excesses,
sacking, burning and massacring as they went. After they had carried
off from the houses everything which seemed worth taking away, and
after they had dispatched to Metz the product of their rifling, they
set fire to the houses with torches, pastilles of compressed powder
and petrol which they carried in receptacles placed on little carts.
Rifle shots were fired on every side; the unhappy inhabitants, who
had been driven from the cellars before the firing, were shot down
like game--some in their dwellings and others in the public streets.

MM. Sanson, Pierson, Lallemand, Adam Jeanpierre, Meunier, Schneider,
Raymond, Duponcel, and Hazotte, father and son, were killed by rifle
shots in the streets. M. Killian, seeing himself threatened by a sabre
stroke, protected his neck with his hand. He had three fingers cut off
and his throat gashed. An old man aged 86, M. Petitjean, who was
seated in his armchair, had his skull smashed by a German shot. A
soldier showed the corpse to Mme. Bertrand, saying: "Do you see that
pig there?" M. Chardin, Town Councilor, who was Acting Mayor, was
required to furnish a horse and carriage. He had promised to do all he
could to obey, when he was killed by a rifle shot. M. Prevot, seeing
the Bavarians breaking into a chemist's shop of which he was
caretaker, told them that he was the chemist, and that he would give
them anything they wanted, but three rifle shots rang out and he fell,
heaving a deep sigh. Two women who were with him ran away and were
pursued to the neighborhood of the railway station, beaten all the way
with the butts of rifles, and they saw many bodies heaped together in
the station garden and on the road.

Between 3 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon the Germans entered the
butcher