A mere glance at the daily records shows that, until March, 1917, no definite purpose was behind this bombardment. It was continued for two years and a half for no other purpose than to annoy the French. Else why these daily bombardments of a few shells only, these days of calm or of little doing, these spurts of agony, bringing sudden death or useless destruction, only to be followed by lapses into silence? Had the destruction of Reims been seriously undertaken it might, I suppose, have been accomplished long since. But it pleased the enemy to irritate rather than to destroy; a little harm day by day, a little annoyance, more or less, spread over a considerable period of time, with occasional outbursts of great violence, this was the programme. Or, more dreadful still, when the German forces met with defeat, the guns were opened afresh on the helpless cathedral, that it might be wounded again for disasters it had in no sense been party to. While doubtless all this has been thoroughly understood by the French military authorities, little was known of it to the outside world, for little that went on at Reims was known anywhere. There were many other and more important things in the Great War that affected the future of France and of the world. Humanity held its breath while the heroic battle of Verdun was in progress, because it was a military event of the first magnitude. But so little has been heard of Reims that a revelation of its daily martyrdom must come as a shock to those who have closely followed the war. The story presented from the month of March, 1917, is quite different from anything that preceded. Very obviously the foolish game of play-war was abandoned, and a real effort made to accomplish the destruction of the city. The mind pales before the needless horrors of these months, so inefficiently indicated by a record of continuous and continued bombardment. So full of horror has been this time that the local papers speak of a daily fall of 600 shells, or even 1000 shells, as a welcome relief from days just passed! And the cathedral. That, of course, is the one central overpowering thing that excites the interest of the world in the bombardment of Reims. This is not so with the unfortunate people of Reims, who have seen their loved ones killed, their houses ruined, their occupations gone, and who have suffered daily privation and martyrdom. Reims is not alone among the cities and districts of France in such horrors, but its cathedral is one of the treasures of the world, and in this war of great crimes no greater crime has been attempted than the destruction of this splendid church.