The incident at best was a ghastly display of lawlessness. The destruction of Louvain was accompanied by every token of barbarism. The city contained many buildings of the Gothic style, survivals of the Middle Ages. It had, also, a university whose library was rich in ancient manuscripts. Its church of Saint Peter was a notable edifice and contained some famous paintings beside rare carvin sje.nnlan this town on 26 August was a body of n troops com manded by Major von Manteuffel, when firing occurred during the evening and several Ger mans were injured. The inhabitants explained it by saying .that a body of Germans that had marched against Malines, then occupied by Bel gian troops, had been repulsed and thrown back "on Louvain. Coming into the town in the dark ness they were mistaken for Belgians and fired on by the Germans in the town, many of whom were drunk. They returned the fire and sol diers were wounded in each party. This story of the origin of the trouble was confirmed by the inhabitants and published by the Belgian offi cials. The Germans alleged that there was a conspiracy by the inhabitants, who fired on the soldiers. There is little question that most of the Gennan soldiers, seeing their fellows wounded, believed this to be the origin of their wounds. Major von Manteuffel made no careful investigation, took the readiest explanation that suggested itself, and ordered the town destroyed. The work was carried out systematically. Houses were looted and fired by bands of soldiers who passed from block to block. The university with its library and Saint Peter's Church, with a large ntunber of the handsomest old residences, were reduced to ruins. Only the city hall was left standing of all the early architectural monuments. An American news paper correspondent, Mr. Arno Dosch-Fleurot, who passed through Louvain, where his train remained two hours, saw the effects of the fire from the railroad station 24 hours after the disturbances began. He writes as follows: " It was not until we came in sight of Louvain that we realized the extent of the destruction. Some of us had not been able to credit it until we saw it with our own eiromels was prepared to find one or two of the more tronb quarters destroyed, but the first thing that caught injr:ny.ei was the roofless church of St. Pierre. Across the Place the Hotel de Ville 101 stood, but everything in between, • distance of half a milt and everything for a sae beyond, to the farthest rampart, was burnt. All the handsomest houses in the northern end of the city were bare brick and stone walls. There were • few buildings along the ramparts to the,east stall standing, but these, too, were burning when our train went on two hours later. My first inclination, as the train pulled in. was to go through the ruined town. bat the train had hardly come to a stop before a soldier, drunk both from excitentent and drink. sboved Iris head into the window and cried with an expressive vesture, "Three cities rased! Three l There will be mare " Another soldier appeared and threatened to .kill the reporter, mistaking him for an English man, but a third soldier pushed hirn aside with the remark: (He's drunk.) Of the final act in the tragedy the observer reports as follows: " About a hundred English prisoners were led across the Place de la Station and, after they had been placed in cars, a long line of citizens of Louvain were brought around in a circle under guard. I could not make out at first what the purpose of this was as my view was temporarily cut off by a cow that was led to the main entrance of the station. But presently a bayonet was run into the neck of the cow, and, as it fell, I could see a group of about 15 men, in civilian clothes, closely guarded. The long line of Louvain citizens was being led around them. It was difficult to make out what was going on. I asked the soldier at our window and he said carelessly. ' Oh, those are the civilians who returned today to shoot us after we had burned half the town. We are going to shoot some of thern.' " The outer line of civilians kept marching in a circle until they had all passed close to the men in the center. Then the line opened and the inner group passed out to the right. A group of soldiers followed. After an interval of only a minute or two, hardly time for absolution, we could hear the rifles of the firing squad. Evidently the careless soldier knew what he was talldng about. ' Hear that,' he said. as the rifles cracked. ' What did I tell you? ' " Immediately some one climbed on a gun carriage among the group of citizens standing motionless before the station entrance. I could not hear a word he said, but his expressive gestures showed he was exhorting his fellow townsmen to accept their fate and yield to the conquerors. While he
talked, the butcher in the foreground skinned the cow aith professional coolness, and began carving the carcass." litany a Belgian village and small tywn paid as dearly as the city of Louvain for the un submissive spirit with which it took up the yoke of the conquerors. It would seem that the Ger man High Command at the time was sure of winning pre-eminence in world affairs that they thought they could afford to ignore the judg ment of pul)lic opinion in the world.
4. The French Border It has been said that the French High Command had made plans for an early quick offensive against the German frontier south of Belgium. They lost no titne in putting it into effect. On 7 August, eight days 'before their mobilization was complete, they pushed troops into Alsace, oc cupied Altkirk on the 8th, and took Miihlhausen on the 9th. France burst forth into peals of rejoicing when it was announced that the 'lost provinces) were being recovered., The Gertnans, however, rallied on the night of the 9th and recovered Miihlhausen. Then another French army, commanded by General Pau, was sent into the province, which retook Miihlhausen and oc cupied a considerable portion of the slopes of the Vosges Mountains. Feeling that all was going well here the High Command then under took a similar movernervt in. Lorraine. Here a French force crossed the border on the 12th, moving steadily forward. In a week they had penetntted the province from 15 to 20 miles and had crossed the railroad connecting Metz and Strassburg. The Germans had expected the attack and were ready to fight a defensive war fare, while the main strength of their armies for the time was thrown against Belgium. The French fotmd them strongly placed at Morhange and charged impetuously. Then be came apparent the new type of warfare, for which the French were not prepared. Rush ing fonvard the lines carae under the fire of the heavier type of German field gun. These pieces outranged the French 75's, which were useless against the enemy and not close enough to support their infantry. When the Frenchmen charged forward they suddenly came to strong wire e.ntanglements. Here they were exposed to heavy fire and lost many tnen. Under the circumstances the 15th corps, from Marseilles, broke confusedly and carried other troops with it in disorder to the rear. The Germans delivered a counter-attack, pressed back the French, and it was not until General Foch, commanding the 20th corps, ha.d used his greatest efforts that the retirement was checked and imminent disaster averted. To save the day, the army which had won successes in Alsace was shifted to Lorraine, thus relinquish ing most of the ground won there. When these two movements ended the French stood in general along the line which for 40 years haoi separated France from her ((lost prov inces.) The German army in this section, COM manded by the crown prince of Bavaria, now pressed forward, hoping to seize Nancy. It was met with great steadiness by the French under General Castelnau and failed in its effort. Three weeks later, while the battle of the Marne was being fought, it renewed the attack and was again defeated in a great battle. Thenceforth to the end of the war there was no more seri ous fighting on the battle-line from the Moselle to Switzerland.
A third Frenc,h offensive vras undertakes along the line east of the Meuse Valley and north of Verdun. Here two French armies commanded by Generals Ruffey and De Langle de Cary took the offensive, the first attacking the German crown prince iu front of Longwy, and the second attacking the Duke of Wurttem berg, near Neufchateau. Each met the same disadvantage that their fellows encotmtered at Morhange. Their guns outranged, the men lost heavily before the German barbed wire and fell back from the encounter. Here again the Ger mans took the offensive at once, and the French retired behind the Meuse. But they fought bravely as they went and did much damage to their foes.
The combined French offensives were thus brought to disastrous ends by the German su penority of equipment. Herein was a most significant fact in the war. Improved mac.hines of destruction were to be the order of the day. In no other war in history did the c,ontest open with such deckled advances in the weapons of war since the last previous struggle; and in no other war were such improvements made in the weapons actually in use while the conflict lasted. One of the consequences was that in no other war have men been killed so freely. Never before did the actual combatant have so little chance for his life in the presence of the enemy.