M. Paul Fredericq, Professor at the University of Gand, writes to the _Soir_:-- "A young girl of Gand has had a touching inspiration. "She wished Belgian women who can write English and German, forgetting international hatred, and listening only to the voice of compassion, to attend at the ambulances and hospitals, in order to place themselves at the disposal of wounded foreigners, without distinction, and to write, at their dictation, letters intended to reassure their relatives. "This truly Christian work of charity would put an end to the anguish of so many mothers, who know that their sons are engaged on the Belgian battlefields. "I am certain that this appeal to the good hearts of our girls and women will not have been made in vain." While the Germans are butchering our sons and wives, this is what Belgian hearts are thinking of. (_Le Peuple_, 10th August, 1914.) Finally, to close with, here is a numerical example which, better than any reasoning, gives you the _Kultur_ of the German Army to the life:-- On the morning of Sunday, the 23rd August, 1914, the population of Fonds de Leffe (a suburb of Dinant) comprised 251 men and boys, including some fifteen inhabitants of neighbouring communes whom the Germans had dragged away with them. By the evening of the following day 243 had been put to death: none of those taken was spared; the eight who escaped the massacre had succeeded in fleeing. "Happily"--we were told by a woman whose father, husband, and four brothers-in-law were massacred--"happily many of the men had left for the army and were fighting on the Yser. A strange war, in which the soldiers are less exposed than the children, the old folks, and the sick who are left at home!" FOOTNOTES: [32] Apparently our author had never heard timber burn before.--(TRANS.) [33] As the Chancellor must have known, if the civil population _had_ been called to arms it would have been a perfectly legal measure. But the Germans, who claim the right to do what is forbidden to others, would forbid others to do even those things that are lawful.--(TRANS.) [34] See the _Tägliche Rundschau_ supplement, 24th September, 1914; and _Hamburger Fremdenblatt_, weekly supplement, 4th October, 1914. [35] Epistle to Romans viii. 31. [36] The bill-stickers of Brussels take a malign pleasure in refraining from pasting other matter over the burgomaster's denial. In July 1915, eleven months after it was posted, one could still read the famous denial in several parts of Brussels.