ABSTRACT
For some time past the reports of village-burning by the Prussians in France had pretty nearly disappeared from the press. We began to hope that the Prussian authorities had discovered their mistake and stopped such proceedings in the interests of their own troops. We were mistaken. The papers again teem with news about the shooting of prisoners and the destroying of villages. The Berlin Börsen Courier reports, under date Versailles, Nov. 20:
Yesterday the first wounded and prisoners arrived from the action near Dreux on the 17th. Short work was made of the francs-tireurs, and an example was made of them; they were placed in a row, and one after another got a bullet through his head. A general order for the whole army has been published forbidding most expressly to bring them in as prisoners, and ordering to shoot them down by drumhead court-martial wherever they show themselves. Against these disgracefully cowardly brigands and ragamuffins (Lumpengesindel) such a proceeding has become absolutely necessary.
