I remained at Arlon until the end of August, at the house of one of my relatives, whose business brought him daily into contact with the Belgian authorities and the German army. I was thus able to obtain a good deal of precise information. * * * * * The Germans entered Arlon on the 12th August. They came from Mersch, in the Grand-Duchy. Several days earlier, all the weapons the inhabitants possessed had been deposited at the Hôtel de Ville. The people of Arlon knew from the newspapers what atrocities the Germans had committed in the neighbourhood of Liége, at Visé, Herve, Battice, Warsage, etc., and they were far from meditating any disturbance. On entering the town the Uhlans began to break in the doors with the butts of their rifles. On the following day Commandant von der Esch, commandant of the town, had a notice posted up, which I have copied _verbatim_. PROCLAMATION. Luminous signals have been made to-night between Freylange and the lower part of this town; one of our patrols has been attacked; our telephone wires have been cut. To punish the population guilty of these acts of ill-will, I order for to-day at 3 o'clock the burning of the village of Freylange and the sack of 100 houses in the west of Arlon. I also condemn the town to pay a war contribution of 100,000 frs., which must be paid over before 6 p.m., or I shall have the hostages shot. VON DER ESCH. * * * * * While the communal administration of Arlon was deliberating on the subject of the war contribution, the burning of Freylange and the sack of 100 houses of Arlon was carried out according to the programme. After the 100,000 frs. had been paid to the Germans, they summoned to the general headquarters, established in the Hôtel de Ville of the northern portion of Arlon, a police agent, named Lempreur, and instructed him to proceed to arrest those who had fired on the German troops. He came back to say that he had found no one. "Ah!" they told him, "you are going about it unwillingly! Very good; you shall pay for the others." And without listening to his pleading, without allowing him to see his wife or children again, he was placed with his back to a door and a firing platoon shot him down. I saw the door at the Hôtel de Ville; it was riddled with bullets. A few days later another army division replaced the first. Immediately the town was condemned to pay a fresh war contribution: a million francs. The town could get together only 238,000 frs. It was let off the remainder. * * * * * From the day when I was set at liberty we used almost daily to hear of executions in Arlon; they were of prisoners, brought just as we were, from the neighbouring villages, notably from Rossignol and Tintigny, who were shot in small parties.