At nightfall I crept out and visited the dead bodies in the hope that life might be left in some of them. It was useless. They were all fine men; but had been fearfully disfigured. One man's face was slashed to pieces; another had his skull split down to the eyes. Both the Germans had been slain by lance thrusts. There was also a dead horse lying by one of the men. I hoped that some of the firearms had been left behind. In vain I searched: not even a pinch of tobacco remained in the pockets of any of the men. Even the ear-rings had been torn from the Cossacks. Many of these, and other Russian soldiers, wear golden ear-rings. I went on to the buildings from which the Germans had ridden out. The house was deserted; and although it was not burnt, the brutal invaders had completely wrecked the interior, smashing furniture, glass and pictures. The place had been occupied by persons of a superior class to the peasant-farmers; and I noticed some female fancy-work lying on the floor of one corner of a room. The whole of this district, though not deserted by the people, was in a cowed state; the peasantry, and especially the well-to-do classes, were afraid to show themselves during daylight. Many had fled to the towns and villages, and a good many had been wantonly murdered. The Poles are a brave, generous people, and my heart often bled for them. Their sorrows, eclipsed by those of the equally brave Belgians, and dimmed by being more remote in point of distance, are not, I think, fully realized in England; especially as they are defended by one of the largest armies in the world. But that army, large and powerful as it is, has not been able to defend them from the tigerish brutality of their foes. They have suffered terribly--the word is not strong enough. The wanton miseries inflicted upon them have been hellish. I have long known the Germans as an arrogant and extremely sensual people, and their learned scientists as the most determined modern opponents of Christianity; but it is one of the surprises of my life to see them sink so low in the scale of humanity--to use a hackneyed but expressive phrase. I could not have believed that the German nation would bathe itself in blood. At this house I scraped together a few fragments of food, and got a couple of blankets, which I much needed: for the nights, though generally clear and bright, were frosty and bitterly cold. I returned to the stone-quarry, for I was afraid to sleep in the house.