“They screamed horribly.  We carried many of those that could not walk, while others dragged themselves painfully along to the side door in the north aisle.  Those who had only hand and arm wounds helped their comrades.  We got out all except thirteen, whose bodies were left behind.

“When at last I came out of the flaming building I found the whole body of wounded huddled together around the doors.  Opposite to them was a furiously hostile crowd of civilians of the town and a number of soldiers with their rifles already leveled.

“I sprang forward.  ‘What are you doing?’ I cried.

“‘They shall all burn,’ shouted the soldiers in answer.  ’They shall go back and burn with the cathedral or we will shoot them here.’

“‘You are mad!’ I exclaimed in reply.  ’Think of what this means.  All the world will hear of the crime the Germans have committed here, and if you shoot these men the world will know that France has been as criminal in her turn.  Anyhow,’ I said, ’you shall shoot me first, for I will not move.’

“Unwillingly the soldiers lowered their rifles and I turned to six German, officers who were among the wounded and asked if they would do what I told them to.  They said they would and I asked them to tell their men to do the same.  Then I formed them up in a solid body, those who could walk unaided carrying or helping those who could not.  I put myself at the head and we set off to the Hotel de Ville, which is only a few hundred yards away.

“Well, then the crowd, mad with grief and rage, set on us.  I can’t describe it.  You have never seen anything so dreadful as that scene.  They beat some of the Germans and some of them they got down.

“‘Can’t you help me!’ I called to a French officer I caught sight of.

“‘You will never get to the Hotel de Ville like this,’ he replied, so I forced my wounded through the gateway of a private house and we managed to close the gates after us.

“They had been roughly handled, some of them, and they stayed there a day and a night before we could move them again.”

[The damage done to the cathedral at Rheims, by the way, though by no means slight, inexpressibly sad and truly regrettable, was not nearly so great as was indicated by many early reports.  The friends of architectural art and beauty hope to see the cathedral fully restored at no distant date.]

“SLAUGHTER” AT SOISSONS

Much of the fighting during the battle of the Aisne centered around Soissons.  On September 16 a correspondent described the fighting there as follows:  “For the last three hours I have been watching from the hills to the south of the town that part of the terrific struggle that may be known in history as the battle of Soissons.

“It has lasted for four days, and only now can it be said that victory is turning to the side of the Allies.

“The town itself cannot be entered for it still is being raked both by artillery and rifle fire, and great columns of smoke mark several points at which houses are burning.