At 8 o'clock in the evening a particularly loud report was heard in the town, which proved to be the signal for a general firing on the German troops gathered together in the streets and the market-place. The fire--evidently at the given signal--opened from the roof windows of a corner house near the market-place, situated opposite that of the Mayor (App. 3). Three volleys were fired from this house, then the shooting ceased for a short time, after which brisk and rapid firing began again from many of the houses. The shots came chiefly from the roof window. All the doors and windows of the house from which the first shot had been fired were firmly locked, and had to be broken open by the soldiers. The house was set on fire. Several civilians, who attempted to flee, were seized, many with weapons in their hands (App. 5). Eighty-eight men amongst them were shot as francs-tireurs (App. 3). Colonel Stenger had remained alone in his room in the Mayor's house. By a notice on the door the house was easily recognisable as being the quarters of the Brigade Staff. Colonel Stenger, trusting to the assumed friendliness of the inhabitants, had spent the afternoon on the balcony adjoining his room, where he was clearly visible to all. Towards the evening he retired to his brightly lit room, leaving the balcony doors wide open (App. 1). When Captain Schwarz and Lieutenant Beyersdorff went to call on him in the evening about 8 o'clock, in order to receive instructions with reference to the uprising, they found Colonel Stenger lying mortally wounded in the middle of the lighted room, with the balcony doors still wide open. The doctor, who was immediately summoned, could only testify to the death that had already overtaken him (App. 1). The shots fired at the Colonel occurred then at the same time as those of the first lively volleys fired from the house opposite his room. It was the case of a systematic attack upon the German troops, who, robbed of their leader, were to fall into disorder and confusion. Hence the cessation of the firing after the first volleys, when the criminals saw they had succeeded in murdering the Colonel, and its immediate hostile renewal against the apparently leaderless troops. The sequence of events is so obvious that it is only confirmed by the previous pretence of friendliness on the part of the inhabitants, and not weakened by this fact, as the Belgian representation of events would have it.