We shall see as we proceed how these notebooks complement one another.
(d) Notebook of the Private Philipp, (from Kamenz, Saxony,
First Company, First Battalion, 178th Regiment.) On the day
indicated above--Aug. 23--a private of the same regiment was
the witness of a scene similar to that just described;
perhaps, the same scene, but the point of view is
different.--At 10 o'clock in the evening the First Battalion
of the 178th came down into the burning village to the north
of Dinant--a saddening spectacle--to make one shiver. At the
entrance to the village lay the bodies of some fifty citizens,
shot for having fired upon our troops from ambush. In the
course of the night many others were shot down in like manner,
so that we counted more than two hundred. Women and children,
holding their lamps, were compelled to assist at this horrible
spectacle. We then sat down midst the corpses to eat our rice,
as we had eaten nothing since morning. (Fig. 4.)
[Illustration: Figure 4.]
Here is a military picture fully outlined, and worthy to compete in the
Academy of Fine Arts of Dresden. But one passage of the text is somewhat
obscure and might embarrass the artist--"Women and children, holding
their lamps, were compelled to assist at this horrible spectacle.
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