"12^{th} August 1914. In Belgium.--It is easy to imagine the state of fury of our soldiers, when you see the villages that have been destroyed. There is not one house left undamaged. All eatables are requisitioned by the soldiers no longer commanded. We have seen heaps of dead men and women who had been executed after trial. But the righteous anger of our soldiers goes hand in hand with sheer vandalism. In some villages which had already been deserted they "set up the red cock" on all the houses (burnt them). The inhabitants sadden me. If they use disloyal weapons, after all they are but defending their country. The atrocities that these civilians have been and are guilty of are avenged in a savage manner. _Mutilation of the wounded is the order of the day._"[29] This was written on the 12^{th} of August, only eight days after innocent Belgium had been invaded, and the wounded who were tortured were only defending, against Germany that land, their native land which Germany had sworn to respect and if necessary to defend. But in many a country, the Pharisees who having read these lines will calmly go to their churches or Chapels, their bank-parlours or their chancelleries murmuring: "In what way do these things concern me? _Ja, Ja_, it is war". [Illustration: _Plate 17._] [Illustration: _Plate 18._] Yes, it is war, but a war such as was never waged by the soldiers of Marceau, nor ever will be waged by the soldiers of Joffre, such as never has been nor ever will be waged by France, "mother of the arts, of arms and of law". Yes, it is war, but such as even Attila would not have waged, had he agreed to certain engagements, for, to agree to them would have been to awake to the conception which _alone_ distinguishes the civilized man from the barbarian--the nation from the horde--the respect of the given word.--Yes, it is war, but a war whose insolent principles could be constructed only by pedantic megalomaniacs, the Julius von Hartmanns, the Bernhardis, the Treitschkes; principles that presume to authorize the people elect to blot out from the laws and customs of war all the humanity that centuries of Christianity and chivalry have with difficulty introduced; principles of systematic ferocity, the odious side of which is already obvious enough; but still more the senseless and ridiculous side. Is it not indeed ridiculous that they should be already obliged to deny it at least in words,--they the burners of Louvain, Malines and Reims, they the assassins of women, children, and wounded men! and that they should have imposed upon their slavish ninety-three _Kulturträger_ the denials which we know so well: "It is not true, say they, that we wage war contrary to the laws of nations, and our soldiers do not commit acts of indiscipline or cruelty[30]", and again: "We will carry on this war to the bitter end as a civilised people, for this we will answer in our name and on our honour".