ld, Rue Marie-Therese, Rue des Joyeuses Entrees. German
soldiers were firing at random in every street and in every direction.
Later fires broke out everywhere, notably in the University building,
the Library, in the old Church of St. Peter, in the Place du Peuple, in
the Rue de la Station, in the Boulevard de Tirlemont, and in the
Chaussee de Tirlemont. On the orders of their chiefs, the German
soldiers would break open the houses and set fire to them, shooting on
the inhabitants who tried to leave their dwellings. Many persons who
took refuge in their cellars were burned to death. The German soldiers
were equipped with apparatus for the purpose of firing dwellings,
incendiary pastils, machines for spraying petroleum, etc. . . .

"Major von Manteuffel (of the German forces) sent for Alderman Schmidt.
Upon the latter's arrival, the major declared that hostages were to be
held, as sedition had just broken out. He asked Father Parijs, Mr.
Schmidt, and Mgr. Coenraedts, First Vice-Rector of the University, who
was being held as a hostage, to make proclamations to the inhabitants
exhorting them to be calm and menacing them with a fine of twenty
million francs, the destruction of the city and the hanging of the
hostages, if they created disturbance. Surrounded by about thirty
soldiers and a few officers, Major Manteuffel, Father Parijs, Mr.
Schmidt and Mgr. Coenraedts left in the direction of the station, and
the alderman, in French, and the priest, in Flemish, made proclamations
at the street corners.. . .

"Near the statue of Juste-Lipse, a Dr. Berghausen, a German surgeon, in
a highly excited condition, ran to meet the delegation. He shouted that
a German soldier had just been killed by a shot fired from the house of
Mr. David Fishbach. Addressing the soldiers, Dr. Berghausen said: 'The
blood of the entire population of Louvain is not worth a drop of the
blood of a German soldier!' Then one of the soldiers threw into the
interior of the house of Mr. Fishbach one of the pastils which the
German soldiers carried and immediately the house flared up. It
contained paintings of a high value. The old coachman, Joseph
Vandermosten, who had re-entered the house to try to save the life of
his master, did not return. His body was found the next day amidst the
ruins. . . .

"The Germans made the usual claim that the civil population had fired
upon them and that it was necessary to take these measures, i. e., burn
the churches, the