Many inhabitants of Namur perished during the fire and the fusillade. Some aged people were left in the burning houses: others were killed in the streets, or shot in their own dwellings. In all, seventy-five civilians perished in one of these ways or another on the 23rd-24th-25th August. We may mention, without detailing, the arrest of hostages, and the brutal treatment to which the most distinguished inhabitants of the town were exposed during the early days of German occupation. Namur and the seventeen neighbouring communes were subjected to a war contribution of fifty million francs (£2,000,000), which was afterwards reduced to thirty-two millions, on condition that the first million should be paid within twenty-four hours. The deposits at a private bank (the _Banque Generale_ Belge) were confiscated. On the petition of its directors the concession was made that the sum seized should count towards the war contribution. The immediate neighborhood of the town was the scene of many similar acts of violence. In this part of the province many mansions and villas were systematically pillaged. One citizen of Namur saw his own furniture from his country house going to the rear on a German cart. The plunder was all sent off to Germany. At Vedrin a boy was shot because he was found to have in his possession an empty German cartridge case. Twenty-six priests and members of religious orders were shot in the diocese of Namur. (II.) MASSACRE AT TAMINES. Tamines was a rich and populous village situated on the Sambre between Charleroi and Namur. It was occupied by detachments of French troops on the 17th, 18th and 19th of August last. On Thursday, the 20th August, a German patrol appeared in front of the suburb of Vilaines. It was greeted by shots fired by French soldiers, and by a party of the Civic Guards of Charleroi. Several Uhlans were killed and wounded, and the rest fled. The people of the village came out of their houses and cried: “Vive la Belgique!” “Vive la France!” In all probability it was this incident which caused the subsequent massacre of Tamines. Some time afterwards the Germans arrived in force at the hamlet of Alloux. They there burnt two houses and made all the inhabitants prisoners. An artillery combat broke out between the German guns posted at Vilaines and at Alloux and the French guns placed in a battery at Arsimont and at Hame-sur-Heure. About 5 o’clock on 21st August, the Germans carried the bridge of Tamines, crossed the River Sambre, and began defiling in mass through the streets of the village. About 8 o’clock the movement of troops stopped, and the soldiers penetrated into the houses, drove out the inhabitants, set themselves to sack the place, and then burnt it. The unfortunate peasants who stopped in the village were shot; the rest fled from their houses. The greater part of them were arrested either on the night of the 21st of August or on the following morning. Pillage and burning continued all next day (22nd).