BURNT HOUSES
On September 5 several German soldiers and a non-commissioned officer took possession of the estate. In order to protect one of the women from the brutal attentions of the latter, M. Quenescourt sent her to hide in the farm near by. The German hastened to look for her, found her, brought her back to the castle and took her to an attic. The old gentleman, wishing to save her, fired his revolver up the stairs. He was killed point blank by the German officer who then ordered the woman out of the attic, and handed her over to two soldiers who outraged her in the room where lay the dead man; during this time the first brute fell upon the old servant.
At the cross roads, about 1 km. beyond the spot where the view was taken, turn to the left, abandoning the line of telegraph poles.
On arriving at Courtacon, we cross D. 8 (27½ km.) at the spot where the view above was taken (the photographer standing before the police station which was burned in September, 1914, but has since been rebuilt).
Continue straight on along D. 4, towards Provins; on the left is the group of burnt houses shown in the view below.
The Germans occupied Courtacon on September 6, and immediately set fire to it, after having drenched the houses with paraffin oil. The inhabitants were obliged to furnish the faggots of wood and the matches. The mayor and five other hostages were led away, and guarded in the midst of the troops during the combats which took place around the village. After having pretended to shoot them, the Germans sent them home again.
A young man named Rousseau, a conscript of the 1914 class, was torn from his house with blows from the butt-end of rifles, and led with his hands tied behind his back after the other hostages. Although the mayor declared that the youth's "class" had not yet been called up, he was shot at 50 yards from the village as a spy.
