French magistrates: Mr. Georges Payelle, President of the Cour des
Comptes, Mr. Georges Maringer, Councilor of State, and Mr. Edmond
Paillot, Councilor of the Cour of Cassation. That Commission proceeded
to the spot where the atrocities had been perpetrated and heard
witnesses, who deposed under oath.

All evidence and proceedings have been printed and fill up ten heavy
volumes.

Among many depositions, the following one, taken the twenty-third of
October, 1915, at Paris, will give an idea of the horrors to which the
invaded regions of France were submitted.

* * * * *

Duren Virginie, wife of Berard Durem, 29 years of age, inhabitant of
Jarny in the Department of Meurthe et Moselle, a refugee at
Levallois-Perret:

I swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.

On the 25th of August, 1914, the sixty-sixth and
sixty-eighth Bavarian regiments were quartered together at
Jarny. I was ordered to bring water for the soldiers, so
went in search of a large number of water pails. At three
o'clock in the afternoon an officer, who met me, told me I
had carried enough water and ordered me to go back to my
house. As the Germans were firing on our house with
mitrailleuses, I took refuge in the cellar with my two sons,
Jean, aged six, and Maurice, aged two, and also my daughter
Jeanne, nine years of age. The Aufiero family was also
there. Soon petrol was poured over the house; it got into
the cellar through the air-hole, and we were surrounded by
flames. I saved myself, carrying my two little boys in my
arms, while my daughter and little Beatrice Aufiero ran
along holding on to my skirt. As we were crossing the
Rougeval brook, which runs near my house, the Bavarians
fired on us. My little Jean, whom I was carrying, was struck
by three bullets, one in the right thigh, one in the ankle,
and one in the chest. The thigh was almost shot away, and
from the place where the bullet through his chest came out
the lung projected. The poor child said, "Oh, Mother, I have
a pain," and in a moment he was dead. At the same time
little Beatrice had her arm broken so badly that it was
attached to her shoulder only by a piece of flesh, and
Angele Aufiero, a boy of nine years, who followed a short
distance behind us, was wounded in the calf of the leg.
Little Beatrice