Part 4

After Henri IV., who interested himself greatly in Senlis and lived in its old castle, the kings of France gradually forsook the town in favour of Compiègne, Fontainebleau and Versailles.

Occupied in 1871 by the Germans, it reappears in history in September 1914. The burning of the town and the summary executions which took place there will be recalled in the course of the visit (_pp. 38-52_).

VISIT TO THE TOWN

(See plan inserted between pp. 36/37)

At the +Station+ one gets one's first view of the havoc done to the town by the events of September 1914. It was set on fire on the 3rd.

_Follow the station road (Avenue de la Gare), which leads to the Compiègne Gate._

This is the road by which the Germans entered Senlis on September 2, at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

Whilst one part of the advance guard made the tour of the town, following the boulevards and the ramparts which encircle it, other groups descended directly south by the two main streets which cross Senlis, thus making sure of a thorough exploration.

The entrance lo the +Rue de la République+ suffered a great deal, as is shown by the two photographs, taken before and after the fire of September 2, 1914.

On the left, the toll-house is completely burnt down; in the centre, the Hôtel du Nord and the Restaurant Encausse are in ruins.

The building on the right is the Gendarmerie.

The German prisoners who appear in the picture opposite are leaning against the wall of these barracks.

They were the few soldiers who, remaining in Senlis after the victory of the Ourcq, were captured by Zouaves sent from Paris in motor-cars.

Only a few years ago the Rue de la République was called the Rue Neuve-de-Paris, although it dated from 1753. It was made in order to spare the Court of Louis XV. the circuitous way and steep ascent of the old road, which followed the Rue Vieille-de-Paris and the Rue du Châtel.

_Descending the Rue de la République we come to the Rue Bellon, which crosses it. We turn to the right, at the place shown on the opposite photograph, and a few steps further on, reach the +Carrefour de la Licorne+._ This is one of the most devastated places of the town. The first view was taken during the German occupation, a German cyclist being snapshotted while riding. The other views show the state of the ruins in 1914 and the present condition.

_We return to the Rue de la République._ A few yards down, on the right, we see the charred house, the gable-end of which appears in the view on the following page.

_We next reach the level of the Hôtel du Grand Cerf, of which the signboard is seen on the view below._ The German headquarters staff stayed there, and that is no doubt the reason for its remaining intact. The Mayor of Senlis, M. Odent, was taken there on September 2, after his arrest at the town-hall, just before being taken to Chamant to be shot. The proprietor of the hotel having left the town, the German officers commandeered a restaurant keeper and made him prepare a meal for thirty people, with "ices and champagne."

The houses which face the hotel and which were still burning when the above photograph was taken, are those of the local justice of the peace and public notary.

Looking through the entrance gates of the latter residence, one beholds the scene of desolation reproduced in the opposite picture.

_On the left of the Rue de la République_ we come to a building which served as the sub-prefect's office and +Court of Justice+. This building, formerly a hospital, dates from the beginning of the eighteenth century.

The work of the incendiaries is seen by comparing the opposite view with that given below.

All the ruins already pointed out, as well as those that will be seen further on, were made systematically.

The soldiers to whom this work was assigned arrived in columns; at the sound of an officer's whistle a certain number of men left the ranks and smashed in the doors of the houses and the shop-fronts; then others came who started the fires with grenades and fuses; lastly, the patrols who followed fired incendiary projectiles into those buildings which did not take fire quickly enough.

The above view was taken during the German occupation. It shows the Red Cross staff conveying the wounded from the overflowing hospital to the College of Saint-Vincent.

_After crossing the Nonette, one arrives at the junction of the Rue de la République and the Rue Vieille-de-Paris._

_At the corner stands the inn "+Le Débit Simon+," of which a view is given below._ Simon was without doubt the first victim of the German occupation.

Tn the middle of the afternoon a German patrol, who had just been drinking at the inn, was shot at by a French rearguard, who had left Simon's a few moments before.

The Germans immediately seized the innkeeper, accused him of having fired, and shot him point-blank.

Other pretended reprisals were made, causing the death of twenty unoffending civilians, of which the reader will learn the details further on.

The view below shows the corner of the Place Saint-Martin where stands the Café Simon. Two German cyclists are seen in the photograph, which was taken on September 4, 1914. It will be noticed that the one on the left has a lady's bicycle, which certainly did not come out of the Army stores!

_Following the Rue du Faubourg St. Martin shown above_, the tourist will pass a pretty estate (_view below_), the old quarters of the Gardes du Corps, which was completely burnt and the ruins of which produce a startling effect.

In front, partly burnt, are the headquarters of the Cavalry. Still further on, at the exit of the town, is the +Hospital+.

It was there that the battle raged most fiercely.

The German advance-guards, beating back the French soldiers delayed in the Faubourg St. Martin, were met by the fire of the machine-guns stationed outside the town, along the road.

The Germans penetrated into the hospital and the neighbouring gardens, trying to outflank the French defences which they thought were placed on the road, but a deadly fire from the transverse trenches made them fall back. Furious at this, they seized the passers-by and made them walk in the middle of the road, they themselves keeping close to the walls.

Among the hostages were a Mme. Dauchy and her young daughter. The latter was shot in the leg. Georges Leymarie was killed; one of his companions, Levasseur, while carrying the body along the pavement beside the hospital wall, suffered the same fate. Two other hostages, Audibert and Minouflet, the latter wounded, had also reached the pavement of the hospital. A German officer discharged a revolver at Audibert and left him for dead; he ordered Minouflet to show his wounds and, finding them insufficient, put a bullet through his shoulder. Three other people fell. The shrieks of the victims reached the French, who ceased fire. The surviving hostages then slipped past the trees along the road, under German fire, up to the French lines. The Germans took advantage of this to make a fresh attack, but were repulsed.

The hospital, situated as it was in the midst of the fighting, was not spared, A German officer, wounded by one of the first shots, entered the hospital and meeting an old pensioner, M. Maumus, on the threshold, shot him down in cold blood.

The ward where the French and Moroccan wounded lay was fired on with machine guns, as shown in the above photograph. By a wonderful chance no one was hit, the Crucifix also remained untouched in the centre of a wreath of bullets.

_The tourist will now, retracing his steps, turn to the right into the Rue des Jardiniers, whence he will have a good view of the whole town. Always keeping to the left he will pass through the Meaux Gate into the Rue de Meaux which borders the +College of St. Vincent+ (p. 64). (If on foot, it would be better to follow the line of the ramparts Bellevue and Saint-Vincent, instead of the Rue des Jardiniers. At the Meaux Gate he will go down the steps into the Rue de Meaux.)_

_Back in the Rue de la République, he will go up as far as the Rue Odent, which skirts the Hôtel du Grand Cerf. By this road he will arrive at the Place de la Halle, continued to the right by the Rue Saint-Hilaire, which leads to the church of +Saint-Pierre+ (see p. 60)._

_From the Place Saint-Pierre one goes to the left into the little Rue aux Flageards which passes in front of the north doorway of the cathedral, of which a view is given opposite._ The tower on the right and the spire were struck by several shells.

_Continuing along the Place Mauconseil and turning to the left into the Rue Villevert one reaches the charming square which lies in front of the parvis of the +Cathedral+._

_(See pp. 53-59 for descriptions concerning the artistic features of the cathedral.) Here we shall only give the incidents of September 1914 in which the building shared._

During the day of September 2, 1914, about fifty shells struck the old church and caused rather serious damage, as shown in the following photographs. The vicar of the cathedral, the Abbé Dourlent, went about the streets of Senlis during the bombardment and had 125 inhabitants, who had been unable to find shelter in the cellars, escorted out of the town by one of his curates. On his return to the vicarage, which stands at the foot of the tower (_the house visible in the photograph on p. 54, on the right, behind the two trees_), shortly after the Germans had entered the town, the vicar heard violent and repeated blows in the cathedral. Coming out into the square he saw cyclists, holding a large fragment of a statue (which had been flung to the ground by a shell) with which they had battered in the small door of the cathedral (_that on the right in the view on p. 54_). Others, axes in their hands, were attacking the door of the steeple on the south side of the tower. The Germans, revolver in hand, rushed at the vicar, and their leader commanded him to take them to the top of the steeple, accusing him of having allowed machine guns to be placed there which had fired on them.

As they climbed the first step they heard the first shots fired in the lower part of the town.

The soldiers sprang up and declared the vicar their prisoner.

The visit to the steeple confirmed the Abbé Dourlent's declaration that no one had been up and that no military preparations had ever been made there. The men drew off, but a few moments later the porter of the town-hall brought the vicar the order to render himself immediately as hostage at the Grand Cerf Hotel.

When he arrived the Headquarters Staff had left, taking with them the mayor, who was shot that evening.

The incendiarism had already started; the vicar saw incendiary bombs thrown into the houses facing the hotel, which are shown in the photograph _on page 41_. He entered the vicarage, then returned to the Grand Cerf to learn what fate awaited him.

It was there that a German superior officer, who spoke French, said these few words which throw light on the events at Senlis:

_Poor Curé, poor Senlis, your civilians have fired on us and we have been shot at from the top of your church tower, therefore Senlis is doomed. You see that street in flames_ (the Rue de la République), _well! this night the whole town will be completely burned down._

=We have orders to make of Senlis another Louvain. A terrible example is needed for Paris and for the whole of France.=

The vicar implored for mercy for the town, and the officer promised to intervene with his superiors in order to obtain a mitigation of the sentence. Whether he gained his point or whether the giving up of the direct march on Paris caused the part of scape-goat assigned to the peaceful little town to appear of less immediate necessity, the incendiarism was limited to the Rue de la République and the Quartier de la Licorne.

_The tourist will visit the +Cathedral+ (see pp. 53-59), +Saint-Frambourg+ (p. 60), the +Castle+ (pp. 61-63), and will then go down the old Rue du Châtel._

This road was the scene of an outrage of 1789, famous in the annals of Senlis. The clockmaker Billon, seeing beneath his windows the company of musketeers from which, as usurer, he had been dismissed, raised his musket and killed the commandant and several others. Trapped in his house, he backed from room to room still adding to the number of his victims. At the moment when they seized him the mine that he had prepared exploded, destroying his house and leaving twenty-six dead and forty injured.

_The Rue du Châtel ends in the Square Henri IV., in the corner of which stands the +Town-hall+._ Its façade (_see below_) dates from 1495. Above the door is the bust of Henri IV., with an inscription taken from the letters-patent sent by the king to Senlis as thanks for the town's resistance against the Leaguers:

"_Mon heur a prins son commencement en la ville de Senlis, dont il s'est depuis semé et augmenté par tout le royaume._"

(_My good fortune had its beginning in the Town of Senlis, whence it has since sown itself and spread over all the kingdom._)

The Square Henri IV. received the first shells of the bombardment in September, 1914, which killed a fireman on guard at the town-hall.

When the Germans penetrated into Senlis, one of their superior officers went to the town-hall and asked for the "burgomaster."

The mayor, M. Odent, came forward.

For three generations the Odents had been mayors of Senlis. The grandfather of the present mayor distinguished himself during the cholera epidemic in 1832; his father was seized as hostage in 1870 and narrowly escaped being shot.

On the eve of the German occupation, M. Odent took his family to Paris and on his return to Senlis wrote a postcard to M. Cultru, oldest member of the municipal council, as follows:--

"Having at last placed my wife in safety, I now belong entirely to Senlis."

M. Odent had the presentiment that he would not come out of German hands alive; a fervent catholic, he performed his religious duties in view of a swiftly approaching death, and fastened a crucifix on his breast.

Above we give the last photograph of M. Odent. It was taken on August 5, 1914, during a military fête. M. Odent is in the middle.

The mayor was violently upbraided by the officer because of the deserted aspect of the town--barely 1,000 inhabitants remained out of 7,000, and during the bombardment houses and shops were closed. He was also blamed for the absence of proclamations exhorting the inhabitants to deposit their arms at the town-hall and to offer no resistance....

M. Odent pointed out the rapidity of events, and the peaceable ways of the old city. He was nevertheless led before the headquarters staff at the Grand Cerf Hotel. Immediately after, came the sound of the first shots fired by the French rearguard at the lower end of the town. The officer was furious and vowed that he would hold the mayor responsible and that his head should answer for the lives of the German soldiers. The town-clerk suggested to M. Odent that the deputy mayor should be fetched, but the latter refused, saying: "One victim is enough."

The resigned hostage was taken from the Grand Cerf to Chamant (_see p. 66_). He was brutally treated, his gloves snatched from him and flung in his face, his stick seized and brought down violently on his head. M. Odent and some other hostages spent several hours of cruel waiting for their fate. At last, at about 11 o'clock in the evening, they were brought before several officers. After having been made to stand at attention they were ordered to lie flat, their hands stretched forward; they were then again told to stand at attention. The officers, satisfied that they had thus asserted their authority, for form's sake then proceeded to interrogate the mayor, and in spite of his denial persisted in accusing him of having opened fire upon the German troops. They then informed him that he would be shot.

M. Odent returned to his companions in captivity, gave them his papers and money, shook hands with them, and bade them a dignified farewell. He then went back to the officers. At their command two soldiers dragged him about ten yards further off and put two bullets through his head.

The ground was hastily hollowed out and the body was laid under such a thin layer of earth that the feet were not covered. It was here that the cross shown in the above photograph was erected. The tourist can visit it when passing through Chamant (_see p. 66_). A few hours before the mayor's death six other hostages had been shot and buried in the same field. M. Odent's companions were more fortunate, they were sent back to Senlis the next day. On September 12 the bodies of the mayor and the six other victims were exhumed and taken to the cemetery in the town (_see p. 52_). Other hostages narrowly escaped death. At about eight o'clock in the evening, in the tailor's shop at the corner of the Rue du Châtel, in front of the town-hall, three inhabitants were seized and taken to Chamant. To these, in the course of the journey, were added a dozen others. They were about to share the fate of the preceding hostages when one of them, who spoke German, succeeded in inducing the Headquarters staff to set them free.

_By the Rue Vieille de Paris (a continuation of the Rue du Châtel) we descend to the lower part of the town._ (In 1358 the "Jacques," masters of Senlis, drove back the nobles who had entered the lower end of the road by rolling down the slope heavily laden wagons which overturned anything that happened to be in their way.)

_In front of the old Convent of the Carmes, No. 3 of the Rue Vieille de Paris, stand +Megret's+ Baths, to which a café is attached._ In the afternoon of September 2 some Germans smashed in the door and demanded drink. It was no doubt at that time that other German soldiers entered the café Simon, a little further on (_see p. 43_). The two proprietors suffered the same fate. Mégret had barely finished serving the patrol with a dozen bottles of wine when a shot, fired point-blank, felled him to the ground.

On _page 49_ appears the photograph of three young German soldiers belonging to that column of incendiarists and murderers who did so much damage to Senlis. With threats they forced the photographer, M. Rozycki, to whom we are indebted for the views taken during the German occupation, to take the photograph we have reproduced.

_A little way past the Convent of the Carmes (which is turned into barracks, its chapel being used as a clothing store), we follow, on the right_, the line of ramparts that goes from the _Rue Vieille de Paris (where the Paris gate used to be)_ to the _Place de Creil (where stood the gate of the same name)_.

These ramparts were made in the thirteenth and fourteenth and strengthened in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The first portion is called +le Rempart des Otages+ in memory of the executions of 1418, during the fight between the Burgundians, who occupied Senlis, and the Armagnacs, who besieged it.

The town, reduced to famine, was to surrender on April 18 if no help arrived, and six hostages were handed over as guarantee: two abbots, two nobles, and two commoners. Help was signalled on the day of the 18th; but the Armagnacs, before leaving, decapitated four hostages at the foot of the ramparts on which the tourist is standing. In return, the besieged flung down from the walls the heads of twenty prisoners captured during a sally.

Six centuries have elapsed, but it will be seen that, towards hostages, the Germans still retain the mental attitude of the Middle Ages.

A picture by Mélingue (reproduced above), which hangs in the town-hall, commemorates the execution of the hostages of Senlis in 1418.

The next rampart is called the +Montauban+, after the square tower which was added to it in 1588. It was in the dry moat below that the Archers' Company held their practice. The head of the company, the "King of the Crossbow," was exempted by Henri III. from paying taxes, and ever since that remote period archery has always been held in honour at Senlis. At certain fêtes as many as 4,000 archers were assembled, part of them belonging to the town, the others coming from the surrounding country.

From the rampart, the view of old Senlis, spread out at the foot of the cathedral, is particularly picturesque.

_From the Creil Gate, where you come out on leaving the ramparts, the +Arena+ can be visited (see p. 65). After that, turn down the Avenue Vernois, at the end of which is seen the entrance to the cemetery._ The monument raised in memory of the hostages who were murdered in 1914 (_view below_) is in the western part of the cemetery. In the northern part is the grave of the soldiers who fell during the battles of Senlis (_view above_).

From the Boulevard Pasteur, which is a continuation of the Avenue Vernois, there is a pretty view of the country.

At the corner of the Rue Saint-Joseph stands a convent where seventy nuns remained during the German occupation. Some German soldiers made them open the door and demanded wine: "Oh!" answered the Reverend Mother, "the nuns only drink liquorice-water."

_The tourist now finds himself at the Compiègne gate, from where he began his visit to the town. This is also the starting point fixed in the itinerary for the journey to Meaux (see p. 66)._

ARTISTIC SENLIS

(See plan inserted between pp. 36-37)

=The Cathedral of Notre-Dame= (historical monument)

The cathedral was begun in 1153 on the site of a church which had been destroyed and rebuilt several times since the third century. The work of construction was slow, as funds were often lacking, despite the help given by the kings of France. For several consecutive years collections were repeatedly made throughout the country in order to obtain resources for the bishop.

The consecration of the unfinished church took place in 1191.

Towards 1240, the transept was raised and the spire, which is still the pride of Senlis, built.