On September 1, General Foch resisted on the river Retourne but, in the evening, withdrew to the river Suippe, in conformity with the general orders. On the 2nd the town was still protected by the 10th Corps (elements of which occupied the Fort of St. Thierry), by the 42nd Division near Brimont and to the north of the Aviation ground, and by the 9th and 11th Corps to the east. On the 3rd, the French retreat towards the Marne became more rapid, and Rheims was abandoned. On September 5, Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia entered the town and took up his quarters at the Grand Hôtel. The Germans at once requisitioned 50 tons of meat, 20 tons of vegetables, 100 tons of bread, 50 tons of oats, 15,000 gallons of petrol, besides straw and hay, and insisted on the immediate payment of a million francs as a guarantee that their requirements would be met. [Illustration: THE TEMPORARY GERMAN OCCUPATION OF SEPT. 1914 _German troops in front of the Cathedral. The scaffolding of the latter was set on fire on Sept. 19._] This sum was paid in the course of the afternoon, under threats by the enemy. From the 6th onwards the German soldiers gave themselves up to plundering. The tobacco warehouse at 21 Rue Payen was ransacked, and more than 700,000 francs worth of cigars and tobacco stolen. On the following days pillaging, especially of the food-shops, continued. On the 9th, the Kommandantur requisitioned civilians to bury the dead in the Rethel, Epernay and Montmirail districts. On the 11th, the Crown Prince arrived and took up his quarters at the Grand Hôtel, where he was joined by Prince Henry of Prussia, brother of the Kaiser. On the morning of the 12th, the Germans, alarmed at the approach of the victorious French troops from the Marne, arrested the Mayor (Dr. Langlet), Mgr. Neveux, coadjutor of Rheims, and the Abbé Camus. They then drew up a list of a hundred hostages and threatened to hang them at the first attempt at disorder. They also threatened to burn the city, wholly or partially, and to hang the inhabitants, if any of them molested the German soldiers. All that day the Germans, instead of organising defences, left the town in haste, after first pillaging it. In the afternoon the Crown Prince left the Grand Hôtel with his suite. At 5 p.m., after setting fire to the forage stores, the Kommandantur left Rheims by the Rethel road in drenching rain, followed by the hundred hostages, who were only released at the level-crossing at Witry-les-Reims. When the latter returned to Rheims, a patrol of French mounted Chasseurs had already entered the town by the suburb of St. Anne. The next morning, at about 6 o'clock, the French troops, with the 6th mounted Chasseurs at their head, entered Rheims by the Rue de Vesle. At 1 p.m. General Franchet d'Espérey, commanding the French 5th Army, entered the city. =The Battles for Rheims, 1914-1918=