Even the _Kölnische Zeitung_ published the story of an eye-witness of the destruction of Aerschot, who would not have escaped had he not called out to the soldiers, “Do you want to kill a man who comes from Cologne?” The Germans then set him at liberty again. “In the streets,” he writes, “the fusillade lasted the whole night. _All those found in possession of a weapon were mercilessly shot._ The sight was terrifying … the wretches who were shot lay on the pavement, and all the time fresh ‘_culprits_’ were being brought before the platoons charged with the task of execution. Women and children wept and asked for mercy. In spite of all their indignation at the attack which had been made upon them, _no German_ heart could be untouched by pity for the innocent victims.” In the notebook of Private Hassemer of the 8th corps we find this fearful confession— “3rd September, 1914. At Sommepy (Marne), dreadful slaughter, the village burnt to the ground, the French thrown into the burning houses; civilians and all burnt together.” “On the third of September, at Creil,” writes a German soldier of the 32nd reserve regiment of infantry, “the iron bridge was blown up. For this reason we set the streets on fire and shot civilians.” The Saxon officer, some of whose narratives we have already reproduced, also admits that the inhabitants were not spared punishment by fire. “The fine village of Gué-d’Hossus (Ardennes) has been consigned to the flames, although it had committed no offence that I can see. I have been told that a man on a bicycle fell from his machine and that, in his fall, his gun went off of itself, and then some one fired in his direction. _After that men were simply thrown into the flames. We must hope that atrocities of this kind shall not be repeated._” “At Bouvignes, north of Dinant,” writes this Saxon officer of the 178th Regiment of the Line, “we entered, through a breach made in the rear, the grounds of a well-to-do resident and occupied the house. Through a labyrinth of rooms we reached the entrance of the house. _There lay the body of the owner._ Outside, in the fields, _the sight of the inhabitants who had been shot, and whose bodies were lying on the ground, baffles all description. The point-blank fusillade almost decapitated them._ Each house was searched in the tiniest corners and the residents dragged out from all their hiding-places. _The men were shot._” The writer of this notebook alleges no pretext which would excuse or explain, in his eyes, all these murders. No more does the reservist Schlanter (3rd battery of the 4th regiment of field artillery of the Guard) mention any reason in justification of the murders which he describes. He writes: “25th August. _In Belgium, three hundred inhabitants of the town were shot._ Those who survived the volley were requisitioned to act as grave-diggers (which proves that they were not considered guilty). You should have seen the women at this moment!”