Chapter 28

[Footnote 6: On the score of certain names important in Germany--names not found under the manifesto of the Intellectuals--a question arises: Were they not solicited as well to cover up these crimes, or did they refuse? If the question were one of a simple memorial, carrying with it no abdication of conscience, this point would be without importance, for it would simply mean that a list, however long, could not bring together all the men of renown of a country, and omissions would often have to be laid to chance. But here a venomous manifesto was to be signed, made up of violent lies and of arbitrary theories; and with this in mind one may see a meaning in certain abstentions. Without any possible doubt they are the act of courageous men, who, feeling deeply where the truth is, will not ally themselves against it; and by their resistance they do it honor.]

Their great affair--and that of every thinking German--is to object, when spoken to of their crimes, either that they were born of necessity or that they did not take place. As against these allegations, unsupported by any proof, the most formal denials have officially been given. But to the latter we shall now add the true description of the facts. And we think that, in spite of the power and the dogmatic authority of its élite, the activity of its emissaries in all parts of the world, and, finally, all its vast apparatus of conquest--military and civil--Germany cannot long make its stand against the humble little truth, which advances, noiselessly but also fearlessly, with the tenacious light in its hand that it received from Reality--from unquenchable and ardent Reality.

We come to you armed with the facts. It is only these unanswerable witnesses that we have wished to oppose to the gratuitous affirmations of our colleagues beyond the Rhine. We might have taken you into the mazes of twenty frightful dramas, for _at every place where the German troops have advanced they have trodden under foot the rights of mankind and counted as nothing the civilization and the patrimony of nations_. We have thought it wiser to limit ourselves to the relation of certain events bearing the seal of certainty.

Not all the cities which may have suffered have as yet opened their gates to our brothers. Not being able to collect authentic testimony there we prefer, then, not to speak of them--for the moment. But in all those evacuated by the enemy, commissions[7] have hurried to ascertain the losses on the spot. It is from these legal examinations that we have written this report, which, in impartial fashion, makes you the judges.

[Footnote 7: Throughout this work we shall often have recourse to the reports of these commissions. At the end of the present volume will be found certain of these documents, unpublished till now.]

Unhappy cities have been tortured in body and soul, that is to say, in their population and in the works built by their hands, the immortal relics of the dead. Of the miseries the people have suffered it is not permitted us to speak. But as to those noble houses built with art which have been destroyed, as to those constructions erected by our ancestors for the edification of men of all classes, of all times, and all countries, which are today but ruins; as to those masterpieces in which all the elegant poetry of our race was realized and that belonged to the civilized world, of which they were a glory and an ornament, and which subsist as nothing but a mournful heap of débris--of these we are not bound to keep silent. But not one exaggerated word shall be uttered by us. The account we shall give is established by high testimony and by irrefutable documents.

But let us cease all this preparation and come to the events of Rheims.

(Page 59 of the book.)

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE.

APPENDIX I.

No. 1.

AT RHEIMS.

_M. Henry Jadart, Librarian of the City of Rheims and Curator of the Museum of that city, was present at the bombardments of the 4th and the 19th of September. He was well placed to enlighten us on the destruction accomplished at the time._

_He was kind enough to send us the communication which we publish below. From the testimony of M. Jadart, it will appear how many monumental constructions at Rheims were mutilated or destroyed, and how these attest, not less than the ruins of the cathedral, the vandalism of the German armies:_

Friday, Sept. 4.--The bombardment, which took place suddenly from half-past 9 till quarter-past 10 in the morning, caused some accidents to the cathedral, more or less notable from the point of view of art, (some stained glass more or less ancient, some slight scratches to the statues;) at the Church of Saint-Rémi (ancient stained glass, tapestry of the sixteenth century, pictures of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, altar screen, statues, south portal, and vault of transept) and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Rue Chanzy, 8, (salle Henry Vasnier broken in by a shell, about twenty modern pictures damaged.) Besides, among the houses struck, the Gothic house, 57 Rue de Vesle, suffered mutilation in the sculpture of a fireplace--it was entirely demolished by the bombardment and fire of Sept. 19.

Saturday, Sept. 19.--This was the day of the great destruction by the bombs and the fires caused in the cathedral, the ancient residence of the Archbishop, in the houses of the Place Royale, and the Cérès quarter. On the afternoon of this day and during the night from Saturday to Sunday, flames consumed the most precious collections of the city, at the Archbishop's palace and in private houses, an inventory of which it will never be possible to prepare.

The top of the cathedral burned after the scaffolding of the northern tower of the great portal had taken fire, toward 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The statues and sculptures of this side of the same portal were licked by the flames and scorched through and through. The eight bells in this tower also were caught by the flames, and the whole thing fell down near the cross aisle of the transept. The spire of the Belfry of the Angel, at the apse, fell, and with it disappeared the leaden heads which decorated its base. In the interior the sculptures and the walls of the edifice were damaged by fire in the straw which had been strewn about for the German wounded; the great eighteenth century tympanums of the lateral doors, west side, were damaged likewise. The thirteenth century stained glass suffered shocks from the air and were perforated, in the rose windows as also in the high windows of the nave. The pictures in the transept were spared, but the choir stalls (eighteenth century work) were consumed--at the left on entering.

Of the adjacent palace all the buildings were attacked by the flames and are now nothing but ruined walls, save the chapel of the thirteenth century, of which the main part subsists intact, and the lower hall of the King's Lodge, under the Hall of Anointment, (of the end of the fifteenth century.) The anointment rooms on the ground floor, reconstructed in the seventeenth century, contained a great number of historical portraits and furniture of various periods, which were all a prey to the flames. It was the same in the apartments of the Archbishops, which also contained numerous pictures and different views of the city, transported from the Hôtel de Ville and intended for the formation of a historical museum of Rheims. Precious furniture, bronzes of great value--like the foot of the candelabra of Saint Rémi and the candelabra of the Abbaye d'Igny--were also in these apartments, of which nothing is left but the walls. The archaeological collections of the city were consumed in the upper apartments, as also a whole museum, organized and classified to represent the ethnography of la Champagne by a thousand objects tracing back the ancient industries, the trades, the arts, and usages of this province. Finally, the rich library founded by Cardinal Gousset, offering superb editions and assembled in a vast paneled hall, was totally burned up in the modern building constructed for it at the expense of the State.

After the disasters to the arts at the cathedral and the palace, we must note also the mansions and private houses, remarkable through their architecture and their decoration, that were demolished, burned, and annihilated. No. 1 Rue du Marc, Renaissance mansion--damage to the sculptured ceiling and the sculptures of the court. Two pavilions of the Place Royale, creations of the eighteenth century, are now only calcined walls. The same fate overtook the Gothic house, 57 Rue de Vesle, (of which mention was made above;) the house, 40 Rue de l'Université, built in the eighteenth century; the house next to the Ecu de Rheims, of the same period; the mansion at 12 Rue la Grue, which was decorated with carved lintels and forged iron banisters; the mansion at 19 Rue Eugène-Destenque, in the style of the Henri IV. period, having a great stone fireplace and decorative paintings in one gallery. Finally, in the Rue des Trois-Raisinets, the remains of the monastery of the Franciscans, with a cloister, and the framework of a granary of the Middle Ages.

These notes are really only observations to be completed later with the aid of descriptions of ancient date, but they offer sure information of the lamentable losses suffered by our unfortunate city during the first month of its bombardment.

Paris, Jan. 20, 1915.

No. 2.

THE FIXED IDEA.

_From M. Auguste Dorchain we receive this striking observation:_

The idea of destroying the cathedral haunted them for a hundred years, at least. Three dates, three texts, three proofs:

April, 1814, Jean-Joseph Goerres, an illustrious professor, the pious author of a "Christian Mysticism," in four volumes, wrote, in the Rheinische Merkur:

"Reduce to ashes that basilica of Rheims where Klodovig was anointed, where that Empire of the Franks was born--the false brothers of the noble Teutons; burn that cathedral!..."

Sept. 5, 1914, we read in the Berliner Blatt:

"The western group of our armies in France has already passed the second line of defensive forts, except Rheims, whose royal splendor, which dates back to the time of the white lilies, will not fail to crumble to dust, soon, under the fire of our mortars."

Jan. 1, 1915. In the artistic and literary supplement of the Berlin Lokal-Anzeiger M. Rudolf Herzog sings an ode "in honor of the destruction of the Cathedral of Rheims":

"The bells sound no more in the cathedral with two towers. Finished is the benediction!... With lead, O Rheims, we have shut your house of idolatry!"

A lyric cry of the heart, when the national wish, a century old, is at last accomplished.

No comment on these three texts--it suffices to bring them together.

AUGUSTE DORCHAIN.

Feb. 20, 1915.

No. 4.

LETTER OF M. L'ABBE DOURLENT.

_M. l'Abbé Dourlent, Curate Archpresbyter of the Cathedral of Senlis, was one of the principal witnesses of the drama. So he has had to speak of it several times. But up to now we had no written deposition from him over his signature. Here is the document which comes from this priest. It attests his courage and sincerity at the same time._

Diocese of Beauvais, Archpresbytery and Parish of Senlis, (Oise.)

SENLIS, Jan. 8, 1915.

Monsieur: You do me the honor to ask for my testimony as to the actions of the enemy at Senlis at the time of the occupation, on the 2d of September.

I beg to send you my attestation, and express my confusion and regret at not having been able to do so sooner.

On the 2d of September an engagement took place between the French and German troops on the plain of Senlis from 10 o'clock till about half-past 2, and it was ended by the bombardment of our beautiful cathedral and a part of the city. The enemy entered the city about half-past 3 and were received at the end of the Faubourg St. Martin by a fusillade directed against them by delayed soldiers and a company armed with machine guns, charged with arresting the pursuit of the French Army, which was bending back toward Paris.

Immediately the superior officer, who was conversing with M. Odent, the Mayor of Senlis, accused the civilians of having fired on the German Army, and rendered him responsible for it. Then began the burning of the whole Rue de la République. This untruth was immediately spread about, and two hours after the affray a General said at Villers-Saint-Frambourg what another General said next morning at Nanteuil-le-Haudouin: That Senlis was burned because the civilians had fired on the German Army. The thirty-seven hostages brought to Chamant heard the same statement.

To this testimony I will add my own, which will only confirm what is said above: As soon as the enemy arrived soldiers of the cyclist corps obliged me to conduct them to the top of the belfry of our cathedral, from which they pretended that they had been shot at. Their inspection revealed nothing of what they thought to find, for I alone had the key and I had confided it to no one. Some moments later I was consigned to the Hôtel du Grand-Cerf as a hostage. The German General Staff had gone to Chamant. Some hours later I accosted a superior officer and asked him what I should do, seeing no one of whom I could inquire the reason for my arrest. "Remain here, where you will at least be in safety. Poor curate! Poor Senlis! But, then, why did you receive us as you did? The civilians shot at us, and we were fired at from the tower of your church. So Senlis is condemned. You see that street in flames? (and, in fact, the Rue de la République was burning everywhere, 114 houses in ruins) well, this night the city itself will be entirely burned down. We have the order to make of Senlis a French Louvain. At Louvain the Belgians shot at us from their houses, from their belfries--Louvain no longer exists. Tomorrow it will be the same with your place. We admit fighting among soldiers, that is war; but we are pitiless with civilians. Paris and the whole of France need a terrible example which shall remind them that warfare by civilians is a crime that cannot be too severely punished."

My energetic protest against the accusation concerning the cathedral and my other doubts formulated against the intervention of civilians (I did not know what was the nature of the engagement in the Faubourg) seemed to interest the officer, who promised to make a report to the General and to plead our cause. Thanks to God, the sentence was repealed; our poor Mayor and ten hostages were shot, but the city was spared.

Such are the facts, which I thought might be of interest in your researches. I am at your orders to complete them if you need more.

I beg you, Sir, to accept the expression of my most respectful sentiments.

(Signed.) DOURLENT. Curate Archpresbyter of Senlis.

No. 5.

THE LIBRARY OF LOUVAIN.

_To close the series of depositions collected by us, here is that of M. Paul Delannoy, Librarian of the University of Louvain. The few lines he was kind enough to address to us will suffice to show the extent of the treasure formerly at Louvain and also of the disaster accomplished, which seems irreparable:_

The library of the University of Louvain possessed 500 manuscripts, about 800 incunabulae, and 250,000 to 300,000 volumes. One noted especially the original of the bull of foundation of the university in 1425, an example on vellum of the famous work of André Vésale, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, an example given to the university by Charles V., a precious manuscript by Thomas à Kempis. The bibliographical curiosities were numerous; the collection of old Flemish bindings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries contained some curious specimens. The souvenirs of the ancient university, seals, diplomas, medals, &c., were preciously guarded in cases. The old printed matters of the sixteenth century formed an extremely rare treasury; all the pieces, pamphlets, and placards on the reform of the Low Countries were kept together in a "varia" volume, thus constituting a unique ensemble. It was the same with a host of pieces relating to Jansenism.

The great halls of the books, with artistic woodwork, were jewels of eighteenth century architecture; the Salle des Pas-Perdus of the Halles Universitaires, with its vaults and capitals, has been reproduced in manuals of art and archaeology.

The reading room of the library contained a whole gallery of portraits of professors of the ancient university; this museum was a very precious source for the literary history of the Low Countries.

PAUL DELANNOY.

No. 6.

THE TESTIMONY OF M. PIERRE LOTI.

_Finally, covering these various testimonies, and deriving from his illustrious signature a character of high distinction, here is what M. Pierre Loti writes us:_

More or less, everywhere in the north and east of our dear France, I have seen with my eyes the German abominations, in which, without this experience, I could not have believed.

In indignation and horror I associate myself with the protestations above, as well as with all those, not yet formulated, which will come out later on and which will always be below the monstrous reality.

PIERRE LOTI.

_So we may say that the present memorial, tempered many a time, is less an excessive than a perfectly moderate picture._

APPENDIX II.

No. 1.

NOTRE DAME DE PARIS.

_It will be remembered that on the 11th of October a Taube, having managed to penetrate the zone of Paris, flew over the city, hovered just above Notre Dame, and dropped several bombs on the cathedral. Note that this was on Sunday and that at the hour when this Taube accomplished its disastrous mission there was in Notre Dame a very great crowd of worshippers. None of them was hurt, but the distinction was undeniably that of killing unarmed people and mutilating a marvel of French art._

_Let us now read the first report, signed by M. Harancourt, who was able to proceed to interesting discoveries on the very day of the attempt:_

Musée des Thermes et de l'Hôtel de Cluny. Sunday, Oct. 11, 1914.

To the Under Secretary of State for the Fine Arts, Service of Historic Monuments.

As I reside in the arrondissement of Notre Dame, I got to the cathedral some moments after the explosion of the bombs. In the company of a Commissary of Police, of an architect of the city, of a Canon, and of two Sergeants of the Fire Department, I examined the damage caused in order to be able to advise the Service of Historical Monuments immediately if the case should be urgent.

The bomb exploded on the west slope of the roof of the north transept, a little above the gutter, near the clock. After having pierced the lead covering it seems to have exploded only after having struck the transverse beam, whose end is splintered. The explosion, having thus taken place under the covering, pushed the edges of the tear outward, making a hole in this covering through which a young person could pass; six small beams were split round about. The bomb was loaded like shrapnel, apparently with leaden bullets of different calibres, for the roof is riddled with circular holes to a distance of twenty meters from there. The holes are of various diameters, but none of the bullets could be found. The nearest turret was damaged--several ornaments were broken from it--the modern clockstand that incases the big clock was riddled by pieces of shell. The bomb thrown at the apse and which fell in the garden was not this time a shrapnel bomb, but an incendiary bomb, which only threw out a sheet of flame. The third having fallen into the Seine, toward the south side of the porch, it is difficult to say whether it was a shrapnel bomb or an incendiary.

To sum up, the damage from the artistic point of view is almost nil; it simply calls for some work by carpenters and roofers.

But the intention to harm the building is evident, and I have thought that perhaps it would be well to take certain precautions to protect, if possible, the fine fourteenth century statue of the Virgin that stands near the pillar, and that it is not impossible perhaps to transfer it to a safer place.

E. HARANCOURT, Member of the Commission on Historical Monuments.

_A report from M. Paul Boeswillwald, Inspector General of Historical Monuments, confirms the first statements:_

Historical Monuments, Cathedral of Paris.

PARIS, Oct. 12, 1914.

The Inspector General of Historical Monuments to the Under Secretary of State for the Fine Arts.

I have the honor to report that I went this morning to Notre Dame to examine the damage caused by the bomb thrown yesterday afternoon on to the cathedral by a German aviator. The bomb struck the lower part of the west slope of the top of the north transept, tearing the lead, breaking a piece of the wooden frame, and smashing by its explosion the crown of the pinnacle which cuts the balustrade at the right of the flying buttress intermediary in the sexpartite vault of the transept. Other effects of the explosion were the striking of some stones and the leads of the dormer window which carries the frame of a clock, as also some small windows. The fragments of the pinnacle fell on the roof of the lower slope, where they made a deep imprint on the lead cover without breaking it through.

The projectile was not an incendiary bomb, since the wood splintered by it bears no trace of fire.

To resume, the damage is, fortunately, quite unimportant.

The order has been given to set aside all the fragments of stone belonging to the decoration of the pinnacle, remains of crockets, ornaments, &c.

(Signed) PAUL BOESWILLWALD.

_With all the friends of civilization and of art, we think that the question of the slightness of the damage caused by this Taube is not to be considered at all. But the fact of this Taube having accomplished such a raid with the sole design of bombarding a cathedral in a peaceful city, 100 kilometres off from the military operations--is it not the most patent and evident demonstration of the kind of Neronian dilettantism which, along with calculation, inspires the crimes of the barbarians?_

APPENDIX III.

No. 1.

WHAT OUR PROVINCIAL CITIES ARE.

_Here is a page published by Anatole France apropos of the bombardment of Soissons:_

I had just read in a newspaper that the Germans, who have been bombarding Soissons these four months, have dropped eighty shells on the cathedral. A moment later chance brought before me a book of M. André Hallays, where I find these lines, which I take pleasure in transcribing:

"Soissons is a white city, peaceful and smiling, that raises its tower and pointed spires at the edge of a lazy river, at the centre of a circle of green hills. The city and the landscape make one think of the little pictures that the illuminators of our old manuscripts lovingly painted.... Precious monuments show the whole history of the French Monarchy, from the Merovingian crypts of the Abbaye de Saint-Médard to the fine mansion erected on the eve of the Revolution for the Governors of the province. Amid narrow streets and little gardens a magnificent cathedral extends the two arms of its great transept; at the north is a straight wall, and an immense stained-glass window; at the south, that marvelous apse where the ogive and the full centre combine in so delicate a fashion." ("Around Paris," Page 207.)

That charming page from a writer who dearly loves the cities and monuments of France brought tears to my eyes. It charmed my sadness. I want to thank my colleague for it publicly.

The brutal and stupid destruction of monuments consecrated by art and the years is a crime that war does not excuse. May it be an eternal opprobrium for the Germans!

No. 2.

MARTYRDOM THAT ENNOBLES.