Outrages, however, continued in various places in the
province.
For example, on or about the 21st of August, at Pepinster two witnesses
were seized as hostages and were threatened, together with five others,
that, unless they could discover a civilian who was alleged to have
shot a soldier in the leg, they would be shot themselves. They escaped
their fate because one of the hostages convinced the officer that the
alleged shooting, if it took place at all, took place in the Commune of
Cornesse and not that of Pepinster, whereupon the Burgomaster of
Cornesse, who was old and very deaf, was shot forthwith.
The outrages on the civilian population were not confined to the
villages mentioned above, but appear to have been general throughout
this district from the very outbreak of the war.
An entry in one of the diaries says:
"We crossed the Belgian frontier on 15th August, 1914, at
11:50 in the forenoon, and then we went steadily along the
main road till we got into Belgium. Hardly were we there when
we had a horrible sight. Houses were burned down, the
inhabitants chased away and some of them shot.
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