“Whatever interpretation others may have put upon my pastoral letter, experience has proved that it caused no risk of rebellion. On the contrary, it had the effect of calming and soothing people’s minds. I congratulate you on having done your duty.” Using Cardinal Mercier’s pastoral letter as a pretext, the Germans proceeded to fresh acts of violence against the Catholic clergy. We need not, however, be astonished that this letter enunciated a certain principle—to wit, that the Belgians owed allegiance only to the King and to the Government of the nation of which they form a part. The Cardinal went on to instruct his people that none the less they should accept the actual situation in the occupied districts, and leave to the regular army the task of national defence. These declarations, which are in absolute harmony not only with the teachings of religion and the principles of the law of nations, but also with the laws of war, gave the Germans a pretext for ill-treating several members of the clergy, desecrating a certain number of churches, tearing the priests from their confessionals, and looting sacristies. OUTRAGES ON THE FRENCH CLERGY The town of Roye was occupied by the Germans on the 7th September. On the morning of the 9th a burial was taking place. At the very time when the service was being held in the church, a French machine-gun came into the town and forthwith began to fire at a German outpost which had taken up a position in the town hall. The Germans rushed madly into the church, to the number of about fifty, and, to the great indignation of those who were present, seized the two officiating priests and the two choristers. Still clad in their sacred vestments, the priests were led into the line of fire of the French machine-guns, and it was only by a miracle that they escaped the bullets. In the sequel, the machine-gun could not keep up its fire and had to leave the town. During this time the crowd had escaped from the church by the sacristy and the adjoining gardens, and the coffin remained alone without celebrants or congregation. The Germans did not release their victims. They compelled the two priests and the two choristers to get into a motor, forcing them to remain standing, and brought them like that to Chauny, where the German general staff was installed. Their intention was doubtless to intimidate the villages through which this wretched party passed. At Chauny the two priests and the two choristers remained for more than twenty-four hours without food or drink, and were kept prisoners for three days. Their release was only brought about through the intervention of the professor of German at the college of Chauny, who by dint of parleying and negotiation had them set at liberty; they returned to Roye, where they were believed to be dead.