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CHAPTER III
ON THE WAY TO THE FIFTH ARMY
I
HAD hardly returned to the hotel when my excellent
friend and travellmg companion Captain von Krum
came and knocked at my door to give me the bad news
that he had received orders from the office of the Imperial
Volunteer Automobile Corps to proceed to the twelfth Army
Corps on a special mission. He comforted me with the
assurance that I should get another car and another officer
for the trip to the German Crown Prince’s Army, probably
one whose duties took him in that direction. There was
nothing to be done in the matter—we took a hearty farewell
of one another and arranged to meet again, if not before, then
after the end of the war.
When I had lost von Krum, the cold, rainy, windy
weather seemed worse than ever. It needed an hour in the
friendly and delightful company of His Excellency and
Countess von Moltke to dissipate the gloom. We talked
about the German soldiers, their good-nature, their humane
conduct and kindly camaraderie towards prisoners and
wounded opponents. It is probably to lessen neutral countries’
sympathy towards Germany and to egg on their own troops
that the newspapers of the Entente Powers have on repeated
occasions accused the German soldiers of inhuman cruelty.
Such tales are entirely without foundation and are in them-
selves highly improbable, for it is not and never has been
part of the Teutonic character to show cruelty to vanquished,
defenceless enemies. In this respect the Latins and the
Slavs have much to learn from the Teutons. The wave of
vandalism which passed over a part of Louvain was let loose
by the inhabitants themselves. The anger felt by the German
soldiers at the treachery of the civil population is justified.
The treacherous firing of frandireurs from behind bushes and
windows, in the dusk and dark, is bound in the end to bring
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