shot at once without a moment's delay. The wife came out
with a little sucking child. She put the child down and sprang
at the Germans like a lioness. She clawed their faces. One of
the Germans took a rifle and struck her a tremendous blow with
the butt on the head. Another took his bayonet and fixed it
and thrust it through the child. He then put his rifle on his
shoulder with the child upon it; its little arms stretched out
once or twice. The officers ordered the houses to be set on
fire, and straw was obtained and it was done. The man and his
wife and the child were thrown on the top of the straw. There
were about forty other peasant prisoners there also, and the
officer said: "I am doing this as a lesson and example to you.
When a German tells you to do something next time you must
move more quickly." The regiment of Germans was a regiment of
Hussars, with crossbones and a death's head on the cap.

[Illustration: BARON STEPHAN BURIAN VON RAJECZ

The Hungarian Who Succeeded Count Berchtold as Austro-Hungarian Foreign
Minister and President of the Common Ministerial Council]

[Illustration: H.M. FERDINAND I.

The New King of Rumania, in succession to his uncle the late King
Charles I.

_(Photo from P.S. Rogers.)_]

Can any one think that such acts as these, committed by women in the
circumstances created by the invasion of Belgium, were deserving of the
extreme form of vengeance attested by these and other depositions?

In considering the question of provocation it is pertinent to take into
account the numerous cases in which old women and very small children
have been shot, bayoneted, and even mutilated. Whatever excuse may be
offered by the Germans for the killing of grown-up women, there can be
no possible defense for the murder of children, and if it can be shown
that infants and small children were not infrequently bayoneted and shot
it is a fair inference that many of the offenses against women require
no explanation more recondite than the unbridled violence of brutal or
drunken criminals.

It is clearly shown that many offenses were committed against infants
and quite young children. On one occasion children were even roped
together and used as a military screen against the enemy; on another
three soldiers went into action carrying small children to protect
themselves from flank fire. A shocking case of the murder of a baby by a