Two facts are made clear by Mr. Mokveld's book, if, indeed, the world has ever doubted them. The first is that the German authorities, believing their victory to be beyond question, deliberately sanctioned a campaign of frightfulness. They did not imagine that they would ever be held to account. They wished to terrorise their opponents by showing them what resistance involved. The atrocities were not the blunders of drink-sodden reservists, but the result of the theories of half-witted military pedants. The second is that the invading armies were as nervous as a hysterical woman. Those would-be conquerors of the world were frightened by their own shadows. A shot fired by accident from a German rifle led to tales of attacks by Belgian _francs-tireurs_ and then to indiscriminate murder by way of revenge. Mr. Mokveld examined the legends of treacherous Belgian assaults and the mutilation of the German wounded, and found them in every case wholly baseless. No German had ever seen these things happen, but had only heard of them. When definite details were given, Mr. Mokveld tracked them down and found them false. The Belgian atrocities lacked even that slender justification which belongs to reprisals. They were the work of a drunken and "rattled" soldiery--for fear is apt to make men brutal--deliberately encouraged by the authorities, who for this purpose relaxed the bonds of military discipline. When the battle of the Marne changed the complexion of affairs, these authorities grew scared and repudiated the policy, but Belgium remains a witness of what Germany's triumph means for her victims. JOHN BUCHAN. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 13 CHAPTER I ON THE WAY TO LIÈGE 15 CHAPTER II IN LIÈGE AND BACK TO MAASTRICHT 40 CHAPTER III ROUND ABOUT LIÈGE 56 CHAPTER IV VISÉ DESTROYED: A PREMEDITATED CRIME 72 CHAPTER V FRANCS-TIREURS? 87 CHAPTER VI WITH THE FLEMINGS 95 CHAPTER VII LIÈGE AFTER THE OCCUPATION 108 CHAPTER VIII LOUVAIN DESTROYED 113 CHAPTER IX LOUVAIN UNDER THE MAILED FIST 132 CHAPTER X ALONG THE MEUSE TO HUY, ANDENNE, AND NAMUR 147 CHAPTER XI FROM MAASTRICHT TO THE FRENCH FRONTIER: THE DESTRUCTION OF DINANT 156 CHAPTER XII ON THE BATTLE-FIELDS 169 CHAPTER XIII ROUND ABOUT BILSEN 175