Battlefields -- France -- Guidebooks; France -- Guidebooks; Marne, 1st Battle of the, France, 1914
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.
[Illustration: PICTURE IN THE TOWN HALL [Execution of Hostages in 1418]]
_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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account