y stopped the firemen at the
very moment they were preparing to do their duty.

In this way they sometimes wilfully burned down whole blocks of
dwellings (Luneville): sometimes an entire district (105 houses at
Senlis, 112 at Baccarat): sometimes almost a whole town itself (more
than 300 houses at Gerbeviller, 800 at Sermaize, 1,200 at Dinant, 1,800
at Louvain[4]). On other occasions they did not leave a house standing
(Nomeny, Clermont-en-Argonne, Sommeilles).

The complete list of buildings, cottages, farms, villas, factories, or
chateaux, burned wilfully in this way by hand, will be a formidable one,
amounting to tens of thousands.[5]

Refinement of cruelty frequently occurs. At Aerschot "women had to
witness the sight of the conflagration holding their hands up. Their
torture lasted six hours." At Crevic, the Germans began their sinister
work by burning a chateau which they knew belonged to General Lyautey.
The troops, commanded by an officer, shouted out for Madame and
Mademoiselle Lyautey "that they might cut their heads off."

The houses destroyed by fire were not always uninhabited. At Maixe, M.
Demange, wounded in both knees, dragged himself along and fell prostrate
in his kitchen; his house was set on fire and Madame Demange was
forcibly prevented from going to the rescue of her husband, who perished
in the flames. At Nomeny, Madame Cousin, after being shot, was thrown
into the burning building and roasted. At the same place, M. Adam was
thrown alive into the flames. Let us note in connection with him, to
their credit, an act of comparative humanity. Finding that the unhappy
man was not being burnt fast enough, they ended his misery in the flames
by shooting him. At Monceau-sur-Sambre, where they set fire to 300
houses, they confined the two brothers S. in a shed, and the unfortunate
men were burnt alive.[6]

The soldiers' diaries are filled with descriptions of incendiarism, some
of which we now quote. "Returned by Mazerulles, which was burnt as we
passed through, because the engineers found a telephone there connected
up with the French."[7] "The whole village was in ablaze. Everything
destroyed in the street, except one small house; in front of the door
was a poor woman with her six children, her arms raised and begging for
mercy. And every day it is the same thing."

_Parnx_. "The first village burnt (in Lorraine, on the 10th August);
after that the fun began. Villages in flames, one after the other.