It is easy to imagine what has been the fate of the country since the opening of hostilities. It is the reign of terror. In the first place persons inscribed on the black list, that is to say, those most suspected, have been arrested and imprisoned. Those, who like the author, have succeeded in escaping the talons of the Germans, have been the objects of prosecution for so-called high treason, liable to capital punishment. They have had their property seized and--supreme misfortune--they have been declared to have forfeited their German nationality. The future only will tell us the fate of those who were captured. The suspects not on the list and the families of the imprisoned were by thousands deported into Germany. The Council of War was in permanent operation. It gave sentences of thousands of years of imprisonment with hard labour against Alsatians guilty of the slightest anti-German manifestation or for the simplest token of sympathy given the French prisoners or the wounded. All classes of society fill the prisons. The penalties imposed on persons having committed the crime of speaking French have been so numerous that a facetious jailor said to a lady, who with tears in her eyes appeared at the prison door: "Do not weep, Madam, you will be in good society here, for this is the only spot where one still speaks French." The summary executions can no longer be counted. Only the crimes committed by the Germans in Belgium can surpass the horrors practised in Alsace-Lorraine. The French sentiment showed its greatest strength in the wholesale desertion of the Alsatians to take service in the French army; and also by the fact that the Alsace-Lorrainers, made prisoners of war by the French, have asked to be enrolled in the French army. Many of the Alsatians, who had the chance to go to the colonies so as not to run the risk of being shot as "traitors" in case of being captured by the Germans, have begged to be sent to the front to fight the Germans, thus risking their lives twice in the service of France. I think I am understating the truth in estimating at 30,000, the number of Alsatians who were mobilized in the German forces and who have gone over to the ranks of the French army. The latter has always had a great attraction for the Alsatian, and whereas the number of Alsatians serving as officers in the German army does not amount to a dozen, of whom only one is a brigadier-general, the French army has thousands of Alsatian officers among whom are hundreds of generals. It is the same thing among the civilians. Many office-holders of all grades are of Alsatian origin, whereas the Alsatian who has accepted an office or looked for any general position in Germany is exceptional. Wherever the French troops have been able to penetrate into Alsace-Lorraine, they have been received with enthusiasm, and when they were obliged to retreat many people followed them into France in order to escape the reprisals which were waiting for them.