life was not secure During the night the crowded schoolrooms and outhouses were raided and soldiers carried off some of the best favoured both of boys and girls never to be seen again by their relatives The horrors of those days have been told before House after house in the Armenian quarter was ransacked and every valuable removed and the buildings committed to the flames For those who were not butchered in the streets worse tortures were reserved In some cases horseshoes were riveted on to men s feet wild cats were attached to the bare bodies of men and of women so that they might tear the flesh with their claws many were soaked in oil and burnt alive in the streets