“’Here, get out!  Where was this paper stamped?  Yes, it is possible to forge!’ They refuse to believe anything; not even a passport from the Chief in Command, nor papers proving me to be a German and my companion a German officer.  When I tell them that I am an author and journalist from Berlin, they parry with a ‘What the devil is that?’

“These brave peasants defend their Fatherland well.  Once we had to wait half an hour till a gendarme came and ended the comedy with a few short words.  Then we are allowed to get in again, and as I turn round a peasant shouts a last greeting:  ’Really, I took you for a common hussy in disguise!’

“They threaten us from the houses.  Now and then the trigger of a gun clicks as it is levelled at us from a window.  The roads are lined with peasants armed with all sorts of weapons, iron spikes, dung-forks, clubs, scythes, and old swords from the time of our great-grandfathers.

“Up to the suburbs of Munich they stand at every village by day and by night to see that nothing happens to the Fatherland!  And even if we were stopped twenty-eight times in this short distance; even if we did have to put up with hard words and black looks—­we suffered all this gladly.  We rejoiced to see with our own eyes how valiantly our peasants defend the frontiers of their Fatherland."[59]

[Footnote 59:  Edmund Edel in the Berliner Tageblatt, August 9th.]

In due time the bloodthirsty Pecksniff who had set the avalanche in motion appeared to express his holy indignation.

“Wolff’s Bureau has circulated the following warning.  Berlin, August 14th.  This fatal hunt for motor-cars has claimed yet another victim.  Recently an Austrian countess was shot while working for the Red Cross, and now a cavalry captain and his chauffeur have been killed by a forest-keeper on the look-out for Russian automobile.

“The General Staff has again and again issued the most urgent demands that this unhappy hunt for foreign motorists—­which has already caused the death of several good Germans—­should cease.

“It is unadulterated madness (es ist heller Wahnsinn) to search for enemy motors in our land.  Neither enemy officers, nor cars loaded with gold, are driving around in Germany.  Would that our people would stop this horrible murder of their own countrymen and lend an ear to the warning voice of our Army Direction.  Our Fatherland needs every single man in this serious hour."[60]

[Footnote 60:  Leipziger Volkszeitung, August 15th.]

Only one more nail requires to be driven home to prove the blood-guilt of the German authorities for the murder of their own citizens.

“Innumerable reports are in circulation about the capture of spies and the prevention of plots against persons and buildings.  In spite of the fact that the military authorities have repeatedly and urgently appealed for the exercise of the greatest discretion in publishing such reports, the nationalist Press exploits every opportunity to disquiet the masses and excite them to senseless delirium.