[Illustration: _Plate 5._]
This (_Plate 5_) is the first page of an unsigned note-book:
"_Langeviller_, 22 August. Village destroyed by the 11^{th} Battalion
of the Pioneers. Three women hanged on trees: the first dead I have
seen."[13]
Who are these three women? Criminals surely, guilty no doubt of having
fired on the German troops, unless they had been telephoning to the
enemy; and the 11^{th} Pioneers had no doubt punished them justly. But
they have expiated their crime now, and the 11^{th} Pioneers have gone
by, and of their crime, the newly advancing troops know nothing. Among
these new troops will there be a commander, a Christian, to order the
cords to be cut and to release these dead women. No, the regiment will
march by under the gibbets, and the flags will brush by these corpses;
they will pass along Colonel and officers, gentlemen and _Kulturträger_.
[Illustration: _Plate 6_.]
And they know full well what they are doing: these dead women must
remain these, as an example; as an example, not for the other women in
the village--these had already no doubt understood--, but as an example
for the regiment, and for other regiments who were to come afterwards.
These must be made warlike, they must be taught their duty, that is to
shoot women when the opportunity occurs. The lesson bore fruit indeed.
Here is sufficient proof: the young soldier who had that day seen and
told us of "dead for the first time" makes the following note on the
10{th} and last page of his diary (_Plate 6_).
[Illustration: _Plate 7_.]
"In this way we destroyed 8 houses with their inmates. In one of them
two men with their wives and a girl of eighteen were bayonetted. The
little one almost unnerved me so innocent was her expression. But it
was impossible to check the crowd, so excited were they, for in such
moments you are no longer men, but wild beasts."[14]
And to prove that this murder of women and children is all in the days
work of the German soldier, here is further evidence.
_a_) The author of an unsigned note-book (_Plate 7_) relates that at
Orchies (Nord) a woman was shot for not having stopped at the word of
command _Halt!_ Thereupon, he adds, the whole place was burnt.[15]
_b_) The officer already mentioned of the 178^{th} Saxon Regt reports
that in the outskirts of Lisognes (Belgian Ardennes) "a scout from
Marburg having placed three women one behind the other brought them all
down with one shot".
[Illustration: _Plate 8._]
_c_) Let us now quote a few lines from the diary of a reservist a
certain Schlauter (3^{rd} Battery of the 4^{th} Regt, Field Artillery
of the Guard, _Plate 8_):
25^{th} August (in Belgium): Three hundred of the inhabitants
were shot and the survivors were requisitioned as grave-diggers.
You should have seen the women at this moment! But you can't do
otherwise. During our march on Wilot, things went better: the
inhabitants who wished to leave could do so and go where they
liked.[16] But anyone who fired was shot. When we left Owele, shots
were fired: but there, women and everything were fired on[17]....