Numerous personal outrages were committed. About fifty hostages were taken; some, rigged out in cloaks and casques, were obliged thus to guard the bridges. Here is the declaration of the road-man of the district, Auguste Brocard: "_My son and I, together with my grandson aged 5½ years, were led away on September 6 by the Germans, who shut us into the sugar factory, and kept us there under guard for four days. When they arrested us, my wife and my daughter-in-law, insane with fear, ran to drown themselves in the Saulx. I managed to run after them, and tried three times to rescue the unhappy creatures, but the Germans forced me away, and left the poor women struggling in the water. I ought to add that when we were set free four days afterwards, and went to find the corpses, the French soldiers who helped to bury them pointed out to us that both my wife and my daughter-in-law had bullet wounds in the head._" [Illustration: THE GRAND SQUARE, SERMAIZE] _On arriving in the town, turn to the right. The street leads to the central square_, which is adorned by a fountain (see below). The enormous rubbish heap which the town represented after the battle is gradually being cleared. The inhabitants have returned, and bravely set about the rebuilding of their homes. Helped by various organisations, French and foreign, and above all by bodies of Quakers known as the "Society of Friends," who have set up numerous wooden houses throughout the countryside, they are bringing this desolate region back to life. [Illustration: RUINS AROUND THE GRAND SQUARE] _Take the Rue Bénard, on the left of the Square_, in order to visit the church, which is in the lower part of the town, near the Saulx. The photo below was taken from the right of this street. In the foreground is the doctor's house, of which only the brass plate remains; in the background is a temporary shanty run up by the chemist. [Illustration: RUINS, RUE BÉNARD] _We reach the Saulx_, on the opposite side of which stands the church, which was shelled and then burned by the Germans. The Romanesque porch, which stood out from it, has been destroyed; the nave is open to the sky; and the spire has collapsed. The Romanesque vaulting of the transept and of the apse has alone survived. [Illustration: CHURCH, SERMAIZE] A fine fifteenth century wooden carving of Christ has been burned, or perhaps more probably taken away by the Germans.