The village of _Barchon_,[14] as the curé of Blégny records, was destroyed on the 14th--in cold blood, five days after the surrender of the fort. There was a battue by two German regiments through the village. The houses were plundered and burnt (110 burnt in all out of 146); the inhabitants were rounded up. Twenty-two were shot in one batch, including two little girls of two and an old woman of ninety-four. Thirty-two perished altogether, and a dozen hostages were carried off, some of whom were tied to field guns and compelled to keep up with the horses. On the 16th the Germans evicted the inhabitants of _Chefneux_,[15] and shot 4 men. On the 17th they burned all the 22 houses in the hamlet. At _Saives_[16] they burned 12 houses, and shot a man and a girl. We have the diary of a German soldier who marched down this branch road from Aubel when all the villages had been destroyed except _Wandre_,[17] which stood where the road debouched upon the Meuse. “15th Aug.--11.50 a.m. Crossed the Belgian frontier and kept steadily along the high road until we got into Belgium. We were hardly into it before we met a horrible sight. Houses were burnt down, the inhabitants driven out and some of them shot. Of the hundreds of houses not a single one had been spared--every one was plundered and burnt down. Hardly were we through this big village when the next was already set on fire, and so it went on.... “16th Aug. The big village of Barchon set on fire. The same day, about 11.50 a.m., we came to the town of Wandre. Here the houses were spared but all searched. At last we had got out of the town when once more everything was sent to ruins. In one house a whole arsenal had been discovered. The inhabitants were one and all dragged out and shot, but this shooting was absolutely heart-rending, for they all knelt and prayed. But this got them no mercy. A few shots rang out, and they fell backwards into the green grass and went to their eternal sleep. “And still the brigands would not leave off shooting us from behind--that, and never from in front--but now we could stand it no longer, and raging and roaring we went on and on, and everything that got in our way was smashed or burnt or shot. At last we had to go into bivouac. Half tired out and done up we laid ourselves down, and we didn’t wait long before quenching some of our thirst. But we only drank wine; the water has been half poisoned and half left alone by the beasts. Well, we have much too much here to eat and drink. When a pig shows itself anywhere or a hen or a duck or pigeons, they are all shot down and slaughtered, so that at any rate we have something to eat. It is a real adventure....” This was the temper of the Germans who destroyed Wandre. They burned 33 houses altogether and shot 32 people--16 of them in one batch. (iii) _On the Fléron Road._