“This appalling story is fully confirmed by an independent despatch from a Dutch journalist who happened to be at Louvain on his way to Brussels. He states that he was standing on Tuesday evening near the railway station at Louvain talking to a German officer, when he was strongly advised to leave the spot, owing to the great danger. “A group of some five hundred men and women described as hostages were ranked in the open space by the station, and they were informed that for every soldier fired on in the town ten of them would be shot. This arrangement was carried out with true German regard for the punctilious observation of all rules. “The wretched people sobbed and wrung their hands and fell on their knees, but they might as well have appealed to men of stone. “Ten by ten as the night wore on they were brought from the ranks and slaughtered, without regard to age or sex, before the eyes of those who remained. “Accounts differ widely as to the origin of the trouble, some declaring that the German patrols in the city fired on the German troops retreating before a sortie from Antwerp, while others state that stray shots were fired at a commissariat train passing through the town. “I would draw special attention to the fact that so far as the main facts are concerned both my informants are Dutchmen, who can have no object in spreading anti-German lies.” Further terrible details are supplied by a cigar manufacturer who happened to be in Louvain about that time. Taken prisoner, he was escorted by German soldiers from the town, which was then one mass of flames, to the neighbouring village of Campenhout, where they witnessed the shooting of seven priests. “Altogether we were seventy-three men, handcuffed like criminals,” he says, “and we were locked in the church, and had to lie on the cold floor. Fresh prisoners arrived at intervals. Outside we could hear the cries and lamentations of women and children. Inside an imprisoned priest gave us absolution. “When we left the church, Campenhout was burning fiercely. We were told we should be freed, but must return to Louvain. On returning, we were once more taken prisoners and driven in front of German soldiers across country without rest or food, and used as a cover for the troops.” The “Black Hole” Outdone. Incredible inhuman treatment was accorded to some twelve hundred people who were captured by the German barbarians in the act of fleeing from the doomed city. The men were separated from the women and children, and marched back to Louvain. Then began for them a terrible journey--a journey that drove many mad and others to self-destruction.