The men of each group had evidently clung to each other before death.
The clenched hand of one of them still held an old pipe. They were all
old men--with white hair. Some days had elapsed since their murder; but
their aspect in death was still venerable; their quiet closed eyes
seemed to appeal to heaven. A staff officer of the Second Army who was
with me photographed the scene; with other _pieces de conviction_; the
photograph is in the hands of the Governmental Commission charged with
investigating the crimes of the Germans during this war."
The Bavarian soldiers in Gerbeviller were not only murderers--they were
incendiaries, even more deliberate and thorough-going than the soldiers
of Von Kluck's army at Senlis. With the exception of a few houses beyond
the hospital, spared at the entreaty of Soeur Julie, and on her promise
to nurse the German wounded, the whole town was deliberately burnt out,
house by house, the bare walls left standing, the rest destroyed. And
as, _after the fire_, the place was twice taken and retaken under
bombardment, its present condition may be imagined.
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