At Pommeuse, during the short German occupation at the beginning of September, 1914, the inhabitants were obliged to erect a barricade which was destined to bar the passage of the Morin against the British. One of the workers not displaying sufficient ardour was tied to a cart-wheel. _D. 16 leaving =Mouroux= on the right joins N. 34 coming from Crécy; turn to the right towards =Coulommiers= (44 km.)._ [Illustration: COULOMMIERS] COULOMMIERS ORIGIN AND PRINCIPAL HISTORICAL FACTS [Illustration: LODGE OF THE GUARDIAN OF THE CASTLE] The following is a poetical version of the origin of Coulommiers. When Julius Cæsar arrived in the region, a tower dominating a few huts stood on the site of the present town. A large number of doves had made their nests in this tower, and flew around it, a fact which caused the spot to be known as _Castrum Columbarium_, from which is derived Coulommiers (the inhabitants are called Columériens). Coulommiers developed greatly under the Counts of Champagne. The tower was surrounded by ramparts, and protected by a moat fed by the waters of the Grand Morin. These fortifications have disappeared, only a few fragments, situated in the Avenue Victor-Hugo, remaining. Coulommiers was occupied by the English in the fifteenth century, by the Russians in 1814, and by the Germans in 1870. On September 4, 1914, the retreating British army abandoned Coulommiers, from which the greater part of the population had fled, barely 600 inhabitants remaining in the town. The Germans entered on the 5th and remained until the morning of the 7th. During this short stay they pillaged methodically, and it was owing only to the energy of the mayor, M. Delsol, 77 years of age, and of the "Procureur de la République," M. Chatry, whose adventures are related below, that Coulommiers did not experience the horrors of Senlis. VISIT TO THE TOWN _Enter Coulommiers by the Rue de Paris, which crosses the Rue de Melun opposite the Hôtel de l'Ours. Cross this street in order to follow the Rue des Capucins, which forms the continuation of the Rue de Paris._ _We arrive before a gateway, on the right, opening into the picturesque grounds of the old castle. Enter by the gateway on the left of the principal building._ A German Staff established itself here during the occupation of September, 1914. Of the eighteenth century castle, built by the Duchess of Longueville, only the large moat and a few quaint ruins remain. [Illustration: BRIDGE OVER THE CASTLE MOAT]