. Mediæval and modern history . hought impregnable,were pounded into dust by themonstrous siege guns of theenemy. The resistance of the Bel-gians roused a fury of rage inthe Germans, who now began acampaign of frightfulness{SchreckUchkcit), the purposeof which was to terrorize thepeople and make them submis-sive to the German will. Vil-lages and cities, individualcitizens of which it was allegedhad fired upon the German soldiers, were sacked and burned, andhundreds of non-combatants--men, women, and children — wereindiscriminately slain. Hostages were shot for the alleged acts ofpersons over w
. Mediæval and modern history . hought impregnable,were pounded into dust by themonstrous siege guns of theenemy. The resistance of the Bel-gians roused a fury of rage inthe Germans, who now began acampaign of frightfulness{SchreckUchkcit), the purposeof which was to terrorize thepeople and make them submis-sive to the German will. Vil-lages and cities, individualcitizens of which it was allegedhad fired upon the German soldiers, were sacked and burned, andhundreds of non-combatants--men, women, and children — wereindiscriminately slain. Hostages were shot for the alleged acts ofpersons over whom they had no control. Priests were killed. Thefamous university and library of Louvain were wantonly destroyedand a large part of the city itself laid in ashes. The world stoodaghast at these crimes, for it had been believed that the time waspast when the armies of any civilized government would commitsuch atrocities, to which there is no parallel in history since theThirty Years War. 1 This speech was made August 4, Harrii, &: Hwing Fk;. 110. Cardinal Mercier ofBelgium. (From a photograph) § 709] THE MIRACLE OF THE MARNE 637 The brave resistance of the Belgians to the passage of theGerman armies had momentous consequences. The delay, shortthough it was, that it caused the Germans not only gave theFrench time to concentrate their forces and throw them to thenorth between the invaders and Paris but it also gave Englandtime to come to the aid of her ally with a small but efficientforce. It thus made pos- ; - sible the great victory of . the Marne. 709. The Miracle ofthe Marne (September5-9, 1914). Along theFranco-Belgian frontier theGerman invaders were metby the French and Britisharmies. Their stubborn re-sistance to the German ad-vance, however, was broken,and the victorious Germanspushed on towards French governmentfled to Bordeaux. It seemedas though the story of 1870was to be repeated. Butwith the enemy almostwithin sight of the capital,the French gen
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