The eloquent Klemt carried his recital to his superior, Lieutenant von Niem, who stated above his signature that the recital was exact. The writer even avers that his Royal Highness Prince Oskar of Prussia, informed of the exploits of the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth, declared it worthy of the name of Königsbrigade, and he terminates with the sentence, Night come, with a prayer of thanks on our lips, we fell asleep in expectation of the morrow, ," which language is quite on a par with that of Moritz Grosse, a soldier of the One Hundred and Seventy-seventh Infantry, who, after describing the sacking of St. Vieth (22d of August) and of Dinant (23d of August), terminates thus: "Throwing into the houses of incendiary hand grenades. In the evening, military concert: Nun danket alle Gott!"

The German military authorities are said to have foreseen everything. They even foresaw the need of denying atrocities, as is evinced by a manual called "The Military Interpreter," second edition, Berlin, 1906; publisher, A. Bath. The author is Captain von Scharfenort, an official of the Military Department. This manual, among many useful formulæ, offers a model letter of protest against an accusation of atrocities. This suggestive document is entitled "Letter to the Commander-in-Chief of the Hostile Army," and commences thus:

66 In a circular letter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs you have reproached the German troops with numerous violations of international custom.

M. A. in the midst of an ambulance corps organized by him; they are accused of having made use of explosive bullets, of having compelled peasants in the vicinity of S. to dig trenches under fire; they are accused of having attempted to transport provision and munition trains and caissons by protecting them with the conventional sign of Geneva; finally, a physician who was caring for a wounded Prússian soldier is said to have been killed by him.

Although I was quite sure, a priori, that these accusations were false, I was unwilling to rest content with simply assuring you that such things were impossible, and I made an inquiry to discover whether something might have happened which could have been transformed, by reporters unworthy of credence or filled with malevolence, into the monstrosities which were laid at our door."

After stating that the inquiry offered great difficulties because of the vagueness of the accusations, he continues:

It is exact that M. A. was arrested, and that he. had been occupied in caring for the wounded, but his arrest did not take place in the midst of an ambulance corps. It was motivated by the suspicion that the abovementioned person was in communication with the garrison of S., and his arrest, as also his imprisonment which followed, took place with all of the consideration due to his situation and to his honorability. As to the duration of his detention, the military investigation alone can decide. As for all the other affirmations, I must declare them to be fabrications. Out of regard for the other Powers which adhered to the Convention of Geneva and the declaration of St. Petersburg of Novem-: ber 29 (11 December), 1868, I add here and I affirm that the said-mentioned convention has been observed by the German troops in the most scrupulous manner," etc.

Yes, the German military authorities foresaw everything-except that some of their soldiers' diaries would be captured.