FOOTNOTES:
[29] This incident was narrated by the special correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt.
[30] Letters from the front published in the Berlin newspapers leave no doubt on this point. One such account described how a French shell in the Battle of the Marne wrecked an ambulance wagon loaded with bottles of wine—an instance of French contempt for civilised warfare!
In 1870-71 the Germans impoverished Rheims by heavy requisitions.
[31] The windows of Rheims Cathedral were filled with stained Venetian glass dating from the 12th century and impossible to replace.
[32] The interior of Rheims Cathedral was furnished with sixty-six large pieces of priceless old tapestry, representing scenes in the life of Christ, the story of the Virgin, and scenes from the life of St. Paul, the latter after designs by Raphael. These tapestries had been removed to a place of safety.
CHAPTER X REVIEW OF RESULTS
Had the fighting round Rheims and the fighting north of the Aisne no result? Were these combats, vast as they were, merely drawn combats? By no means. North of the Aisne the British gained the eastern end of the ridge; round Rheims the French won all the eastern side of the theatre of hills, with the exception of Nogent l'Abbesse, and also the eastern side of the transverse gap. Those results were both decisive and important.