"Well, then the crowd, mad with grief and rage, set on us. I can't describe it. You have never seen anything so dreadful as that scene. They beat some of the Germans and some of them they got down.
"'Can't you help me!' I called to a French officer I caught sight of.
"'You will never get to the Hotel de Ville like this,' he replied, so I forced my wounded through the gateway of a private house and we managed to close the gates after us.
"They had been roughly handled, some of them, and they stayed there a day and a night before we could move them again."
[The damage done to the cathedral at Rheims, by the way, though by no means slight, inexpressibly sad and truly regrettable, was not nearly so great as was indicated by many early reports. The friends of architectural art and beauty hope to see the cathedral fully restored at no distant date.]
"SLAUGHTER" AT SOISSONS
Much of the fighting during the battle of the Aisne centered around Soissons. On September 16 a correspondent described the fighting there as follows: "For the last three hours I have been watching from the hills to the south of the town that part of the terrific struggle that may be known in history as the battle of Soissons.
"It has lasted for four days, and only now can it be said that victory is turning to the side of the Allies.
"The town itself cannot be entered for it still is being raked both by artillery and rifle fire, and great columns of smoke mark several points at which houses are burning.
"The center of the fighting lies where the British and French pontoon corps are trying to keep the bridges they have succeeded in throwing across the river.