(h) It is delightful to note that in enumerating the precious possessions of the convent the Jesuit fathers occupy the very last place, after the pictures and the gold plate! But this impertinence is more apparent than real; for the narrator has just stated that the 150 Jesuit fathers were packed, together with the pictures and the sacred vessels, in eight motor-cars! Evidently they were very tiny Jesuits. It must have been their minuteness that saved them; for the author has reminded us that Jesuits (of ordinary size) are not admitted into Germany; but these, happily, passed unperceived.
(i) It was not Saturday, but Friday.
It is by such inventions—presented as the narratives of eye-witnesses, and not as romances—that the Germans excite against us both their troops and their home population. The method has given excellent results; nothing gives better proof of its efficiency than the first paragraph of the story of The Battle of Charleroi, in which we read that at the beginning of August many trucks passed through Belgium which bore the inscription:—
Gegen Frankreich mit Mut,
Gegen Belgiën mit Wut.
(Against France with courage; against Belgium with rage.)
Which shows to what a pitch the minds of the German troops had been excited against us.
A "French Dirigible" Captured by the Germans.
Other inscriptions on the railway carriages and vans are not uninteresting to the student of Kultur.
On the 5th March, 1915, we learned from ocular witnesses that a German dirigible was lost, on the 4th, at Overhespen, near Tirlemont. La Belgique of the 6th March contained a few details.
Brussels, 5th March (Official).—The Zeppelin dirigible L8, returning yesterday from a fruitful voyage of exploration, came to earth in the darkness near Tirlemont, and, during the process of landing, struck against some trees. It was rather seriously damaged, so that it seemed preferable to dismantle it. The operation was completed very rapidly by the soldiers of the aviation department of Brussels, who were despatched to the spot. The dismantled parts will be transported to Germany, there to be rebuilt.
In reality the "rather serious damage" meant that the balloon was completely destroyed, and that twenty of the twenty-eight occupants of the cars were killed. So far we would not describe the report as a lie, as it does not exceed the habitual limits of our enemies' official telegrams. But this goes a little too far: At Tirlemont the report was spread that the dirigible in question was French, and that it was skilfully captured by German troops; and on the trucks which bore the metallic remains of the Zeppelin to Germany was written, in large letters: Erobertes Französisches Luftschiff (Captured French Airship). This is no longer a manipulated truth, but a downright lie.