The general seemed taken aback by the exactness of my information.
"Such things are horrible if true," he said. "Of course, our soldiers, like soldiers in all armies, sometimes get out of hand and do things which we would never tolerate if we knew it. At Louvain, for example, I sentenced two soldiers to twelve years' penal servitude each for assaulting a woman."
"Apropos of Louvain," I remarked, "why did you destroy the library?"
"We regretted that as much as anyone else," was the answer. "It caught fire from burning houses and we could not save it."
"But why did you burn Louvain at all?" I asked.
"Because the townspeople fired on our troops. We actually found machine-guns in some of the houses. And," smashing his fist down upon the table, "whenever civilians fire upon our troops we will teach them a lasting lesson. If women and children insist on getting in the way of bullets, so much the worse for the women and children."
"How do you explain the bombardment of Antwerp by Zeppelins?" I inquired.
"Zeppelins have orders to drop their bombs only on fortifications and soldiers," he answered.
"As a matter of fact," I remarked, "they destroyed only private houses and innocent civilians, several of whom were women. If one of those bombs had dropped two hundred yards nearer my hotel I wouldn't be here to-day smoking one of your excellent cigars."
"That is a calamity which, thank God, didn't happen," he replied.