Aug. 23—­I went with two friends (names given) to see what we could see.  About three hours out of Malines we were taken prisoners by a German patrol—­an officer and six men—­and marched off into a little wood of saplings, where there was a house.  The officer spoke Flemish.  He knocked at the door; the peasant did not come.  The officer ordered the soldiers to break down the door, which two of them did.  The peasant came and asked what they were doing.  The officer said he did not come quickly enough and that they had “trained up” plenty of others.  His hands were tied behind his back, and he was shot at once without a moment’s delay.  The wife came out with a little sucking child.  She put the child down and sprang at the Germans like a lioness.  She clawed their faces.  One of the Germans took a rifle and struck her a tremendous blow with the butt on the head.  Another took his bayonet and fixed it and thrust it through the child.  He then put his rifle on his shoulder with the child upon it; its little arms stretched out once or twice.  The officers ordered the houses to be set on fire, and straw was obtained and it was done.  The man and his wife and the child were thrown on the top of the straw.  There were about forty other peasant prisoners there also, and the officer said:  “I am doing this as a lesson and example to you.  When a German tells you to do something next time you must move more quickly.”  The regiment of Germans was a regiment of Hussars, with crossbones and a death’s head on the cap.

[Illustration:  BARON STEPHAN BURIAN VON RAJECZ

The Hungarian Who Succeeded Count Berchtold as Austro-Hungarian Foreign
Minister and President of the Common Ministerial Council]

[Illustration:  H.M.  FERDINAND I.

The New King of Rumania, in succession to his uncle the late King
Charles I.

(Photo from P.S.  Rogers.)]

Can any one think that such acts as these, committed by women in the circumstances created by the invasion of Belgium, were deserving of the extreme form of vengeance attested by these and other depositions?

In considering the question of provocation it is pertinent to take into account the numerous cases in which old women and very small children have been shot, bayoneted, and even mutilated.  Whatever excuse may be offered by the Germans for the killing of grown-up women, there can be no possible defense for the murder of children, and if it can be shown that infants and small children were not infrequently bayoneted and shot it is a fair inference that many of the offenses against women require no explanation more recondite than the unbridled violence of brutal or drunken criminals.

It is clearly shown that many offenses were committed against infants and quite young children.  On one occasion children were even roped together and used as a military screen against the enemy; on another three soldiers went into action carrying small children to protect themselves from flank fire.  A shocking case of the murder of a baby by a drunken soldier at Malines is thus recorded by one eyewitness and confirmed by another: