In Sempst, a neighboring village, were found the corpses of two men
partially burned. One of them was found with his legs cut off at the
knees, the other was minus his arms and legs. A workman (whose charred
body several witnesses have seen) had been pierced with bayonets, and
afterward, while still living, the Germans soaked him with petroleum and
locked him in a house, which they set on fire. An old man and his son
had been killed by bullets; a woman coming out of her house had been
stricken down in the same manner.
A witness whose declaration has been received by Edward Hertslet, son of
Sir Cecil Hertslet, Consul General of Great Britain in Antwerp,
testifies to have seen not far from Malines on Aug. 26 (that is, during
the last attack of the Belgian troops) an old man attached by the arms
to a beam of a barn. The body was completely burned; the head, the arms,
and the feet were intact. Further on was a body all over stabbed with
bayonet thrusts. Numerous corpses of peasants were found in positions of
supplication, arms lifted and hands folded in prayer. The Belgian Consul
to Unganda, who had entered the Belgian Army as a volunteer, reports
that everywhere the Germans had passed through the country was
devastated.
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