As for a week the Germans had occupied Louvain and closely guarded all approaches, the story that there was any gun-running is absurd.
"Fifty Germans were killed and wounded," said Lutwitz, "and for that Louvain must be wiped out--so!" In pantomime with his fist he swept the papers across his table.
"The Hotel de Ville," he added, "was a beautiful building; it is a pity it must be destroyed." Were he telling us his soldiers had destroyed a kitchen-garden, his tone could not have expressed less regret.
Ten days before I had been in Louvain, when it was occupied by Belgian troops and King Albert and his staff.

The city dates from the eleventh century, and the population was forty-two thousand.

The citizens were brewers, lace-makers, and manufacturers of ornaments for churches.

The university once was the most celebrated in European cities and was the headquarters of the Jesuits.
In the Louvain College many priests now in America have been educated, and ten days before, over the great yellow walls of the college, I had seen hanging two American flags.

I had found the city clean, sleepy, and pretty, with narrow, twisting streets and smart shops and cafes.