Your son, who causes you much suffering and is deeply grieved. +Léon Trulin.+ * * * * * I have put 5 marks in the note-book which is in my bag, for one or two masses and an indulgence, I have given the rest to the Priest for the same purpose. November 7, 1915, the last day before my death. Excuse me, if I do not write very well, I am writing on a garden table. Courage, dear Mother, courage, brothers and sisters, live in peace, without hatred. I die a good Christian. +Léon Trulin.+] The Explosion of the "Dix-huit Ponts" On January 11th, 1916, at about 2 o'clock in the morning, a terrific explosion shook the town, hurling huge stones and débris in all directions for a distance of several miles. An ammunition depot situated in the south-east portion of the ramparts, between the Gates of Valenciennes and Douai, about 400 yards distant from the railway station of St. Saviour, had blown up. It was an enormous underground vault, commonly known as the "Dix-huit Ponts," because of the 18 massive stone arches which formed the entrance. It will probably never be known how many thousand shells and tons of explosives blew up, as the greatest secrecy was observed by the German Authorities. All the soldiers who were there were killed. The damage was tremendous, whole streets and numerous factories, including two large spinning-mills, were entirely destroyed. [Illustration: "LILLE IN TEARS."] At the funeral, which took place on Saturday, January 15th, 1916, there were 108 coffins, but this figure does not include the numerous persons who were literally pulverized by the explosion. The noise of the latter was heard at _Breda_ in _Holland_, nearly a hundred miles away, and houses as distant as the Rue Jeanne d'Arc, Place Philippe le Bon and Rue des Postes were destroyed by the flying stones. In general, the catastrophe was stoically borne by the inhabitants, one citizen remarking: "There were enough shells to have massacred whole regiments. Better we should mourn our dead, than the precious lives of so many of our soldiers." One huge stone, weighing more than a ton, fell in the studio of the sculptor Deplechin (Rue de Douai), Director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, who carved the bas-relief _"Lille in Tears"_ on it _(see Itinerary, p. 36, and photo above)_. The Deportations