[13] Report of the French Commission, vol. iii.
[14] He adds that certain orderlies--Lorrainers, belonging to the German
Army--supplied them with food on the sly.
[15] French chivalry could hardly believe that a doctor would amputate a
wounded enemy's limb without absolute necessity and in mere revenge, but
such cases are, alas, not rare. See the awful tales of torture in the
"Journal d'un Grand Blessé en Allemagne," by Charles Hennebois (pp. 137,
146), and the statement of a German doctor (p. 87), "Your doctors in
France perform amputations as they please on our wounded. The order has
therefore been given to amputate without hesitation, as reprisals, every
damaged limb."
[16] Let us quote, to show the mental "make-up" of certain Germans, the
conditions in which Captain Coustre of the 108th and Captain Lesourd of
the 50th met their deaths. They were wandering over the battle-field
where the enemy had been repulsed. They heard a cry for help. There was
a soldier in one place and an officer in another who asked for a drink.
They stopped and leant over them to give them a drink from their flasks
when the wounded men blew their brains out.