19. Still more improbable is the version of the
conspiracy organized by the Burgomaster. It is to be remarked that if--a
thing which is not known--a German officer has been hit on the Grand
Place, it might have happened by a stray bullet, German soldiers being
engaged in shooting in the neighboring streets in order to frighten the
populace.
Moreover, the Burgomaster, a very quiet man, had repeatedly warned his
fellow-citizens, by means of posters and circulars addressed to every
inhabitant of the town, that in case of invasion they were to abstain
from any hostility. These posters were still in evidence when the
Germans entered the city, and they were shown to them.
The German troops which were traversing localities situated on this side
of Aerschot indulged in the same horrors. They shot fleeing citizens and
set fire to and sacked private houses, all this without provocation.
At Rotselaer, for instance, they set fire to about fifteen houses. A
German officer, addressing an inhabitant whose house was afire, wanted
to make him declare, at the point of a pistol, that the fire had been
started by the Belgians. When this inhabitant protested, claiming that
the Belgians had left the town the previous evening, this officer
declared that if the Germans had set fire to the town it was due
probably to the fact that the civilians had fired at them, a fact which
is also denied by all the witnesses.
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