The burning of the villages in this neighborhood and the wholesale slaughter of civilians, such as occurred at Herve, Micheroux, and Soumagne, appear to be connected with the exasperation caused by the resistance of Fort Fleron, whose guns barred the main road from Aix la Chapelle to Liege. Enraged by the losses which they had sustained, suspicious of the temper of the civilian population, and probably thinking that by exceptional severities at the outset they could cow the spirit of the Belgian Nation, the German officers and men speedily accustomed themselves to the slaughter of civilians. How rapidly the process was effected is illustrated by an entry in the diary of Kurt Hoffman, a one-year's man in the First Jaegers, who on Aug. 5 was in front of Fort Fleron. He illustrates his story by a sketch map. "The position," he says, "was dangerous. As suspicious civilians were hanging about--houses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, were cleared, the owners arrested, (and shot the following day.) Suddenly village A was fired at. Out of it bursts our baggage train, and the Fourth Company of the Twenty-seventh Regiment who had lost their way and been shelled by our own artillery. From the point D.P., (shown in diary,) I shoot a civilian with rifle at 400 meters slap through the head, as we afterward ascertained." Within a few hours, Hoffman, while in house 3, was himself under fire from his own comrades and narrowly escaped being killed. A German, ignorant that house 8 had been occupied, reported, as was the fact, that he had been fired upon from that house. He had been challenged by the field patrol, and failed to give the countersign. Hoffman continues: "Ten minutes later, people approach who are talking excitedly--apparently Germans. I call out 'Halt, who's there?' Suddenly rapid fire is opened upon us, which I can only escape by quickly jumping on one side--with bullets and fragments of wall and pieces of glass flying around me. I call out 'Halt, here Field Patrol.' Then it stops, and there appears Lieutenant Roemer with three platoons. A man has reported that he had been shot at out of our house; no wonder, if he does not give the countersign." The entry, though dated Aug. 5, was evidently written on the 6th or later, because the writer refers to the suspicious civilians as having been shot on that day. Hoffman does not indicate of what offense these civilians were guilty, and there is no positive evidence to connect their slaughter with the report made by the German who had been fired on by his comrades. They were "suspicious" and that was enough.