on certain so-called Germans -- for they were all
naturalised -- and their property.
A very successful recruiting meeting had been held
in the Market Place. At this meeting the local
worthies had been present in force. Thus, on the
platform which had been erected in front of the
Council House, the Lord Lieutenant of the County,
supported by many religious dignitaries, headed by
the Dean, had made an excellent speech, followed by
other short, stirring addresses, each a trumpet call
to the patriotism of Witanbury. Not one of these
speeches incited to violence in any form, but reference
had naturally been made to some of the terrible
things that the Germans had done in Belgium, and
one speaker had made it very plain that should a
German invasion take place on the British coast, the
civilian population must expect that the fate of Belgium
would be theirs.
The meeting had come to a peaceful end, and then,
an hour later, as soon as the great personages had
all gone and night had begun to fall, rioting had
suddenly broken out, the rioters being led by two
women, both Irish-women, whose husbands were believed
to have been cruelly ill-treated when on their
way to a prison camp in Germany.
The story had been published in the local paper,
on the testimony of a medical orderly who had come
back to England after many strange adventures.
True, an allusion had been made to the matter in one
of the recruiting speeches, but the speaker had not
made very much of it; and though what he had
said had drawn groans from his large audience, and
though the words he had used undoubtedly made
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