The procedure of the Germans is everywhere the same. They advance
along the roads, shooting inoffensive passersby, particularly
cyclists and even peasants occupied in the fields which the Germans
traverse.
In the towns and villages where they stop, the Germans first of all
requisition victuals and drinks which they consume to the point of
drunkenness; then they begin to shoot wildly, sometimes from the
interior of empty houses, declaring that the inhabitants have fired
the shots. It is then that the firing scenes begin, and murder and
especially pillage accompanied by acts of cold cruelty set in, acts
which respect neither sex nor age. Even where they claim to know
the perpetrator of the deeds which they allege, they do not content
themselves with executing the culprits summarily, but take
advantage of the occasions to decimate the population, to pillage
all the inhabitants, and to set fire to them.
After a first massacre, somewhat at random, they shut the men into
the church of the town and order all women to go back to the houses
and leave the doors open during the night.
In several localities the civil population has been sent to
Germany, to be compelled there, it appears, to labor in the fields,
as was done in the slave days of olden times.
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