"The door of the church opens suddenly and the priest rushes out at the head of a gang of rascals armed with revolvers." The Prussian Ministry of War replies: "The inquiry does not furnish proof in support of the alleged acts." The _Berliner Tageblatt_, for September 10, has a lively story: "It was the curé who had organized the resistance of the people, who had them enter the church, and who had planned the conspiracy against our troops." The Prussian Minister of War makes answer: "The curé did not organize the resistance of inhabitants; he did not have them enter the church, and he had not planned the conspiracy against our troops." The dashing German war correspondent, Paul Schweder, writes in _Landesbote_ an article, "Under the Shrapnel in Front of Verdun." He says that he saw: "A convoy of francs-tireurs, at their head a priest with his hands bound." The German investigator pauses to wonder why every prisoner and every suspect is a franc-tireur, and then he goes on with his inquiry, which results in a statement from the Prussian War Minister: "Deiber (the priest) had nothing charged against him, was set at liberty, and, at his own request, has been authorized to live at Oberhaslach." The _Frankfurter Zeitung_, September 8, has a spirited account of a combat with francs-tireurs in Andenne, written by Dr. Alex Berg, of Frankfort: "The curé went through the village with a bell, to give the signal for the fight. The battle began immediately after, very hotly." The military authority of Andenne, Lieutenant Colonel v. Eulwege: "My own investigation, very carefully made, shows no proof that the curé excited the people to a street fight. Every one at Andenne gives a different account from that, to the effect that most of the people have seen hardly anything of the battle, so-called, because they had hidden themselves from fear in the cellars." Finally, the War Ministry and the press wearied of individual denials, and one great blanket denial was issued. _Der Völkerkrieg_, which is a comprehensive chronicle of review of the war, states: "It is impossible to present any solid proof of the allegation, made by so many letters from the front, to the effect that the Belgian priests took part in the war of francs-tireurs. Letters of that kind which we have heretofore reproduced in our record--for example, the recital of events at Louvain and Andenne--are left out of the new editions." _Der Fels_, Organ der Central-Auskunftstelle der katholischen Presse, states: "The serious accusations which I have listed are not only inaccurate in parts and grossly exaggerated, but they are invented in every detail, and are at every point false." And, again, it says: "All the instances, known up to the present and capable of being cleared up, dealing with the alleged cruelties of Catholic priests in the war, have been found without exception false or fabrications through and through."