houses with the assistance of rockets. A few houses only escaped
the flames. Before being burned the village had been bombarded by the
Germans, who had taken as their objective an ambulance, whose flag
they saw perfectly.

The commune of Drouville, which was twice occupied, was absolutely
sacked on the 5th of September. The invaders burned thirty-five
houses, using torches and doubtless petrol also, for they left on the
spot a can which contained twenty-five to thirty liters.

At Courbesseaux arson and pillage were also committed on the 5th of
September. Nineteen houses were burned, and M. Alix, who was trying to
put out a fire in a stack of luzerne on his property, was shot at
several times and obliged to flee.

Finally, on the 23d of August, at Erbeviller, a Saxon Captain found a
very practical means of getting money for himself. He collected the
men in the village and tried vainly, by threatening to shoot them, to
obtain a declaration from them that the sentries had been shot at,
although he knew perfectly well that it was untrue. Then he shut them
up in a barn. In the evening he had brought before him the wife of M.
Jacques, a retired schoolmaster, who was one of the prisoners, and
said to her, "I am not certain that these are the men who fired. They
will be set at liberty tomorrow morning if you can give me a thousand
francs in the next few minutes." Mme. Jacques gave him the amount, and
in reply to her request he gave her a receipt for it, and the hostages
were set at liberty.

The receipt drawn up by the officer reads as follows:

Erbeviller, 23d August, 1914.

RECEIPT.

_As a punishment for being suspected_ of having fired on
German sentries during the night of August 22d and 23d I
have received from the Commune of Erbeviller one thousand
francs, (1,000 fr.)

BARON ---- (illegible).

haupt. reit. regim.

In a commune of the Department of Meurthe-et-Moselle two nuns were for
several hours exposed without defense to the lust of a soldier. By
terrorizing them he obliged them to undress, and after having
compelled the elder to pull off his boots, he committed obscenities on
the younger. We undertook not to publish the names of the victims of
this abominable scene, or of that of the village in which it took
place, but the facts were laid before us under the sanction of an oath
by witnesses who deserve the fullest confidence, and we take the
responsibility of pledg