Meanwhile, an ordered and documented narrative of the attested facts seems the best preparation for that judicial appraisement for which the time is not yet ripe. The facts have been drawn from statements made by witnesses on opposite sides with different intentions and beliefs, but as far as possible they have been disengaged from this subjective setting and have been set out, without comment, to speak for themselves. It has been impossible, however, to confine the exposition to pure narration at every point, for in the original evidence the facts observed and the inferred explanation of them are seldom distinguished, and when the same observed fact is made a ground for diametrically opposite inferences by different witnesses, the difficulty becomes acute. A German soldier, say, in Louvain on the night of August 25th, 1914, hears the sound of machine-gun firing apparently coming from a certain spot in the town, and infers that at this spot Belgian civilians are using a machine gun against German troops; a Belgian inhabitant hears the same sound, and infers that German troops are firing on civilians. In such cases the narrative must be interpreted by a judgment as to which of the inferences is the truth, and this judgment involves discussion. What is remarkable, however, is the rarity of these contradictions. Usually the different testimonies fit together into a presentation of fact which is not open to argument. The narrative has been arranged so as to follow separately the tracks of the different German Armies or groups of Armies which traversed different sectors of French and Belgian territory. Within each sector the chronological order has been followed, which is generally identical with the geographical order in which the places affected lie along the route of march. The present volume describes the invasion of Belgium up to the sack of Louvain. ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE. _March, 1917._ FOOTNOTES: [1] A schedule of the more important documents will be found in the “List of Abbreviations” pp. xi-xiii. [2] Belgian Reply pp. vii. and 97-8. CONTENTS FRONTISPIECE _The Invaded Country (Map)_ PAGE PREFACE v TABLE OF CONTENTS ix LIST OF MAPS ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xi CHAPTER I.: THE TRACK OF THE ARMIES 15 CHAPTER II.: FROM THE FRONTIER TO LIÉGE 23 (i) ON THE VISÉ ROAD 23 (ii) ON THE BARCHON ROAD 27 (iii) ON THE FLÉRON ROAD 31 (iv) ON THE VERVIERS ROAD 37 (v) ON THE MALMÉDY ROAD 38 (vi) BETWEEN THE VESDRE AND THE OURTHE 42 (vii) ACROSS THE MEUSE 44 (viii) THE CITY OF LIÉGE 46 CHAPTER III.: FROM LIÉGE TO MALINES 52