There was nothing to be done: we were in the
hands, not of a doctor, but of a regular brute...."
(4) _Royal thieves_: After living about a week in a chateau near Liege,
H.R.H. Prince Eitel Fritz, the Duke of Brunswick, and another nobleman
of less importance, had all the dresses that could be found in the
wardrobes belonging to the lady of the house and her daughters packed up
before their own eyes, and sent to Germany.
* * * * *
These thieves are often _facetious_: they give as compensation a
so-called receipt or bond (in German, of course), which in French means,
"Good for a hundred lashes," or "Good for two rabbits," or "To be shot,"
or "Payable in Paris".... They are also _disgusting_. In houses robbed
by them they leave, by way of visiting cards, excrement in beds, on
tables, and in cupboards. They are sometimes _unnaturally vicious_. In a
village of Limbourg they burnt in a stable a stallion valued at 50,000
francs, and "forced the farmer, his wife and children to witness the
crime on their knees with their arms raised." Amongst the crowd of
unfortunate people brought from Louvain to Brussels were thirteen
priests. The soldiers at a German guard-house stopped the column, and
ordered the priests to come out. To shoot them? No. They forced them
into a pigsty, from which they had driven out the only pig. Forthwith
they compelled most of them to strip off all their clothes, and robbed
them of everything of value they possessed.
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