Thomas Mann), and that the right of German might is above everything.
Then, in the second place, when they discovered that in the world
outside them there was something known as a "moral conscience," not
understood by them, but still to be reckoned with, _they cynically
denied the charges_. Finally, when they were driven from this second
trench, when simple negation became impossible, _they had perforce to
explain their crimes_.

Their commonest explanation is this, "Civilians fired on us."[24] The
French Commission of Enquiry came to the following conclusion on this
point: "This allegation is false, and those who put it forward have been
powerless to give it the appearance of truth, even though it has been
their custom to fire shots in the neighbourhood of dwellings, in order
to be able to affirm that they have been attacked by innocent
inhabitants, on whose ruin or massacre they had resolved."

Enquiries conducted by high magistrates have established the fact that
German officials are very frequently guilty of premeditated lies. It is
probable, all the same, that many German soldiers, on entering Belgium
or France, were obsessed by the idea of civilians firing on them. The
cry of a soldier trembling with fear, drunk, or thirsting for
pillage--"Man hat geschossen (they have fired)"--is enough for a
locality to be delivered up at once to the wildest fury. "When an
inhabitant has fired on a regiment," said a soldier at Louvain, "the
place belongs to the regiment." What a temptation for a Boche soldier to
fire a shot that will at once unloose pillage and massacre!

Some mistakes have _possibly_ been made which could have been avoided by
the least enquiry. Read this admission recorded in his diary by a Saxon
officer: "The lovely village of Gué-d'Hossus has been given over to the