)_]
[Illustration: GENERAL FOCH
The Brilliant Strategist Who Commands the French Armies of the North
_(Photo from P.S. Rogers.)_]
One witness describes the scene graphically:
"The whole of the prisoners--men, women and children--were
placed in the church. Nobody was allowed to go outside the
church to obey the calls of nature; the church had to be used
for that purpose. We were afterward allowed to go outside the
church for this purpose, and then I saw the clergyman of
Gelrode standing by the wall of the church with his hands
above his head, being guarded by soldiers."
The actual details of the murder of the priest are as follows: The
priest was struck several times by the soldiers on the head. He was
pushed up against the wall of the church. He asked in Flemish to be
allowed to stand with his face to the wall, and tried to turn around.
The Germans stopped him and then turned him with his face to the wall,
with his hands above his head. An hour later the same witness saw the
priest still standing there. He was then led away by the Germans a
distance of about fifty yards.
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