, some three kilometers from Louvain. An alarm was sounded in the
city. There was disorder and confusion, and at 8 o'clock horses attached
to baggage wagons stampeded in the street and rifle fire commenced. This
was in the Rue de la Station and came from the German police guard, (21
in number,) who, seeing the troops arrive in disorder, thought it was
the enemy. Then the corps of incendiaries got to work. They had broad
belts with the words "Gott mit uns," and their equipment consisted of a
hatchet, a syringe, a small shovel, and a revolver. Fires blazed up in
the direction of the Law Courts, St. Martin's Barracks, and later in the
Place de la Station. Meanwhile an incessant fusillade was kept up on the
windows of the houses. In their efforts to escape the flames the
inhabitants climbed the walls.

"My mother and servants," says a witness, "had to do the same
and took refuge at Monsieur A.'s, whose cellars are vaulted
and afforded a better protection than mine. A little later we
withdrew to Monsieur A.'s stables, where about thirty people
who had got there by climbing the walls were to be found. Some
of these poor wretches had to climb twenty walls. A ring came
at the bell. We opened the door. Several civilians flung
themselves under the porch. The Germans were firing upon them
from the street. Every moment new fires were lighting up,
accompanied by explosions. In the middle of the night I heard
a knock at the outer door of the stable which led into a
little street, and heard a woman's voice crying for help. I
opened the door, and just as I was going to let her in a rifle
shot fired from the street by a German soldier rang out and
the woman fell dead at my feet. About 9 in the morning things
got quieter, and we took the opportunity of venturing into the
street. A German who was carrying a silver pyx and a number of
boxes of cigars told us we were to go to the station, where
trains would be waiting for us. When we got to the Place de la
Station we saw in the square seven or eight dead bodies of
murdered civilians. Not a single house in the place was
standing. A whole row of houses behind the station at Blauwput
was burned. After being driven hither and thither interminably
by officers, who treated us roughly and insulted us
throughout, we were divided."

The prisoners were then distributed betwee