In spite of a rescue party, who risked their lives in getting out the wounded, a dozen of the German wounded perished in the flames. The conflagration spread to the Archbishop's Palace, from which it was impossible to remove the tapestries or the pre-historic Roman and Gothic collections. The Protestant Church, the Offices of the Controller of silk and woollen cloths, and the Colbert barracks along the eastern boulevards were burnt. Everywhere new centres caught fire, and nearly thirty-five acres of buildings were destroyed. On the 20th, the bombardment continued with equal violence, then after a respite of two days began again. Of the Place Royale and the Rue Colbert nothing remained but a heap of ruins.
THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN AUGUST, 1917
(Boulevard Lundy)
KINDERGARTEN SCHOOL IN THE BOULEVARD LUNDY
On November 1 the number of civilians killed by shell fire had increased to 282.
From September 14, 1914, to the beginning of June, 1915, the town never remained more than four days without being shelled. Up to the end of November, 1914, the shells rarely went beyond the Cathedral and the theatre, falling mostly in the suburbs of Cérès and Laon. On November 22, the suburb of Paris was struck, and from that time onwards there was no security for the inhabitants in any quarter of the city.
As it would take too long to recount all the bombardments, only the most terrible ones are here mentioned. On November 26, 1914, the German guns fired all day, one shell alone killing twenty-three patients in the Hospital for Incurables. On the night of February 21 and on February 22, 1915, more than 1,500 shells fell in the town, killing twenty civilians, setting on fire a score of houses and piercing the vaulting of the Cathedral.
