From the very first women were not safe. At LiÈge women and children were chased about the street by soldiers. One witness gives a story, very circumstantial in its details, of how women were publicly raped in the market place of the city, five young German officers assisting.

Tamines.—A witness describes how he saw the public square littered with corpses, and after a search found those of his wife and child, a little girl of 7.

Wetteren Hospital.—At this hospital was an old woman of 80 completely transfixed by a bayonet.

Sempst.—Witness saw a girl of 17 dressed only in a chemise and in great distress. She alleged that she herself and other girls had been dragged into a field, stripped naked and violated, and that some of them had then been killed with the bayonet.

Eppeghem.—On August 25th a pregnant woman who had been wounded with a bayonet was discovered in the convent. She was dying.

Louvain.—"In the middle of the night I heard a knock at the outer door of the stable, which led into a little street, and heard a woman's voice crying for help. I opened the door, and just as I was going to let her in, a rifle shot fired from the street by a German soldier rang out and the woman fell dead at my feet."

The wife of a witness ... was separated from him, and she saw other ladies made to walk before the soldiers with their hands above their heads. One, an old lady of 85 (name given) was dragged from her cellar and taken with them to the station.

"I saw the corpses of some women in the street. I fell down, and a woman who had been shot fell on top of me.... One woman whom I saw lying dead in the street was a Miss —— about 35. I also saw the body of —— (a woman). She had been shot. I saw an officer pull her corpse underneath a wagon."

Dinant.—He found his wife lying on the floor in a room. She had bullet wounds in four places, but was alive, and told her husband to return to the children.

Sixty women and children were confined in the cellar of a convent from Sunday morning till the following Friday (August 28th), sleeping on the ground, for there were no beds, with nothing to drink during the whole period, and given no food until the Wednesday, "when somebody threw into the cellar two sticks of macaroni and a carrot for each prisoner."

In Malines itself many bodies were seen. One witness saw a German soldier cut a woman's breasts after he had murdered her, and saw many other dead bodies of women in the streets.

Gelrode.—A woman was shot by some German soldiers as she was walking home. This was done at a distance of 100 yards, and for no apparent reason.

Hofstade.—The corpse of a woman was seen at the blacksmith's. She had been killed with the bayonet.... Two young women were lying in the backyard of the house. One had her breasts cut off, the other had been stabbed.... In the garden of a house in the main street bodies of two women were observed.

Campenhout [Statement of a valet].—"One of the officers ... putting a revolver to my mistress' temple shot her dead. The officer was obviously drunk. The other officers continued to drink and sing, and they did not pay great attention to the killing of my mistress. The officer who shot my mistress then told my master to dig a grave and bury my mistress. My master and the officer went into the garden, the officer threatening my master with a pistol. My master was then forced to dig the grave, and to bury the body of my mistress in it. I cannot say for what reason they killed my mistress. The officer who did it was singing all the time."