his son. As they came down the
stairs they were seized by German soldiers and both were tied
up and led out, my master being tied with a rope and his son
with a chain. They were dragged outside. I did not actually
see what happened outside, but heard subsequently that my
master was bayoneted and shot, and that his son was shot. I
heard shots from the kitchen, where I was, and was present at
the burial of my master and his son thirteen days later.
German soldiers came back into the house and poured some
inflammable liquid over the floors and set fire to it. I
escaped by another staircase to that which my master and his
son had descended."

On the 26th, (Wednesday,) in the City of Louvain, massacre, fire, and
destruction went on. The university, with its library, the Church of St.
Peter, and many houses were set on fire and burned to the ground.
Citizens were shot and others taken prisoners and compelled to go with
the troops. Soldiers went through the streets saying "Man hat
geschossen."[A] One soldier was seen going along shooting in the air.

[Footnote A: "They have been shooting."]

Many of the people hid in cellars, but the soldiers shot down through
the gratings. Some citizens were shot on opening the doors, others in
endeavoring to escape. Among other persons whose houses were burned was
an old man of 90 lying dangerously ill, who was taken out on his
mattress and left lying in his garden all night. He died shortly after
in the hospital to which a friend took him the following morning.

On Thursday, the 27th, orders were given that every one should leave the
city, which was to be razed to the ground. Some citizens, including a
canon of the cathedral, with his aged mother, were ordered to go to the
station and afterward to take the road to Tirlemont. Among the number
were about twenty priests from Louvain. They were insulted and
threatened, but ultimately allowed to go free and make their way as best
they could, women and sick persons among them, to Tirlemont. Other
groups of prisoners from Louvain were on the same day taken by other
routes, some early in the morning, through various villages in the
direction of Malines, with hands tightly bound by a long cord. More
prisoners were afterward added, and all made to stay the night in the
church at Campenhout. Next day, the 28th, this group, then consisting of
about 1,000 men, women and children, was taken back