The suburbs of Louvain
have been completely annihilated.
A group of seventy-five persons, among whom were several notables of the
city, such as Father Coloboet and a Spanish priest, and also an American
priest, were conducted during the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 26, to the
square in front of the station. The men were brutally separated from
their wives and children, and after having received the most abominable
treatment, and after repeated threats of being shot, they were driven in
front of the German troops as far as the village of Campenhout. They
were locked in the church during the night. The following day at 4
o'clock a German officer came to inform them that they might all confess
themselves, and that they would be shot half an hour later. But at 4:30
o'clock they were allowed to go, and shortly afterward they were again
arrested by a German brigade, which forced them to march in front of
them to Malines. Answering a question on the part of one of the
prisoners, a German officer told them that they were going to taste some
of the Belgian grapeshot before Antwerp. At last they were liberated on
Thursday afternoon at the entrance of Malines.
Further testimony shows that several thousand male inhabitants of
Louvain who had escaped the shooting and burning were sent toward
Germany.
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