“The cathedral was struck by about thirty projectiles which, by actually striking the building or by explosion, pulverised the stonework, smashed the glass, and set fire to everything inflammable.
“Projectiles, fragments of which struck the whole building, for the most part hit the upper part of the north tower, smashing the corner of a turret, scraping the face of the tower, and pressing so hard upon the adjoining masonry as nearly to displace it; one of them carried away the upper support of a flying buttress; another smashed the stonework of some bays sloping up to the tower; another broke up a staircase the steps of which had been cut; still another knocked down part of the balustrade of the principal façade under the rose-window.
“The fire kindled by the shells caused the most serious damage; no vestige of roof is to be seen over the nave, the transepts, the choir, the apse, the aisles: only some chapels kept their covering; but everything else was reduced to ashes, the woodwork, the slates consumed; everywhere lead melted and iron twisted.
“All this debris settled down beneath the vaulted roofs, which, although they evidently suffered by contact with the fire, were not broken in.
“On the other hand, the stonework close to the great gallery at the top of the walls, and of the circular galleries underneath the great glass work, was shattered and charred.
“The belfry was devoured by the flames. The bells, which fell on the lower roof without breaking it in, were partly melted; the louvre-boards were untouched. The flames started by the conflagration, driven over the surfaces by the wind, completely defaced the stonework, throwing down not only some of the statues which decorated the open entrance underneath this particular tower, but also the copings of the arches which rise above the door, crowned by a gable containing a representation of the Crucifixion. The damage extends to the pinnacles that rise above the buttresses as high as the gallery of kings.
“The right side of this portal was less damaged; the other portals were struck by fragments of shells.
“In the interior, where German wounded had been laid out on couches of straw, the fire splintered off the moulding at the bases of the pillars in the nave, setting fire to the tympana of the gates and even to the gates themselves. This fire destroyed the statues placed in the niches of the inner front, right and left of the door of the south entrance. Finally, all the glasswork was damaged by the explosion of projectiles and of splinters which passed through them; half of the upper rose-window and the open-work parts above the north and south entrances were denuded of their stained glass; the rose-window above the central entrance was only riddled.
“To sum up, the cathedral was disfigured in its outlines and in the details of its decoration; if its powerful construction has partly sustained the shock of the projectiles, its wonderful sculptures can never be replaced, and it will bear for ever the imprint of a vandalism beyond all imagination.”
“See also photographs of the burning cathedral in L’Illustration (10th October, 1914. These photographs are genuine historic documents. See also M. P. Gsell’s account in the Liberté of the 24th September and Mr. Bartlett’s in the Daily Telegraph, in L’Illustration of the 26th).”