Vanished Halls and Cathedrals of FranceEdwards, George Wharton
History
Vanished Halls and Cathedrals of France
Edwards, George Wharton
Cathedrals -- France; Cities and towns -- France; France -- Description and travel
"Every Sunday mass is celebrated in the untouched part of the Cathedral.
A Protestant service also is given following it. The troops attend
in two detachments, and the sight of these two bodies at once in the
Cathedral is sufficiently curious, and certainly most unusual.
"In the afternoon the officers arrange a sort of concert, at which
artists who are unlucky enough to be here are expected to perform. These
are usually melancholy affairs.
"When the town was first occupied by the Germans, in September, 1914, it
was to the Cathedral that they sent their prisoners for confinement.
The inhabitants were ordered to bring provisions for them, but were
not allowed access to them. It was necessary to intrust the food they
brought to the sentinels, and no one knows whether the food reached the
poor prisoners or not.
"As for the Cathedral, I can say truly that the two great towers were
constantly used by the German soldiers as posts of observation. Our
glorious dead have been laid at rest at the foot of an immense cross
erected outside the town.
"The Germans have prepared for their dead a large 'fosse' in the middle
of a field. An armed picket guard assists at the interments of both
French and Germans, at which military honors are scrupulously observed
and given. These ceremonies, often under the heavy fire of the great
guns of the French, have made an impression upon me that I shall never
forget.
"The morning of the 17th of October, as I was engaged in renewing
the dressing of a lieutenant s wounds, two German policemen brusquely
entered, and called out 'Schwester Godfroy!'
"Hearing my name I turned and prepared to follow the two men, but these
rough men, deeming my movements not quick enough, seized me by the arms
and pushed me towards the stairs leading to my chamber. In the hallway
I perceived my companions, each grasped by a 'gendarme.' An officer and
five men pushed me with them into my chamber and locked the door; then
these men, with a brutality impossible here to describe, ransacked my
bed, ripped open the mattress and pillows, after which they turned the
contents of my valise out on the floor, threw my clothing about; even
breaking off the legs of my '_table de nuit_' to see if I had not
letters or papers hidden therein. I kept my temper, remaining quiet.
"Seeing me so calm seemed to render them furious at finding nothing
to incriminate me. My trunk in a corner of the room attracted their
attention, and they roughly ordered me to open it. I made them
understand that there was no key to it. One of them wrenched off the
lid with his saber, to discover that the trunk was empty. They then
questioned me minutely, after eyeing suspiciously several German
newspapers lying on the table.
"'You speak German, and you refuse to admit it; but do not mistake--you
and the others--we know you to be Belgians, and if you can get to Paris,
it is not for the purpose of caring for the wounded...'
"This seemed so foolish to me that I refused to answer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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