Moreover,
not one of the witnesses has seen the body of a single civilian at the
place where the affray happened. The bombarding lasted until 10 o'clock
at night. Afterward the Germans set fire to the city.
Burning of the Town.
The houses which had not taken fire were entered by German soldiers, who
threw fire grenades, which seem to have been provided for the occasion.
The largest part of the City of Louvain, especially the quarters of the
Ville Haute, comprising the modern houses, the Cathedral of St. Peter,
the University Halls, with the whole library of the university, its
manuscripts, its collections, the largest part of the scientific
institutions, and the town theatres, were at the moment being consumed
by flames.
The commission deems it necessary, in the midst of these horrors, to
insist on the crime of lese humanity which the deliberate annihilation
of an academic library--a library which was one of the treasures of our
time--constitutes.
Numerous corpses of civilians covered the street and squares. On the
route from Louvain to Tirlemont alone one witness testifies having seen
more than fifty of them. On the threshholds of houses were found burned
corpses of people who, surprised in their cellars by the fire, had tried
to escape and fell into the heap of live embers.
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