We retrace our steps. A little wood fringes the road on the right. The German machine-guns were installed there, and cut down the French who attempted to leave their shelter on the other side of the road. About 100 yards further on the wood gives place to a field, on the edge of which, at about 20 yards from the road, in the midst of the trees, is the grave of an unknown French soldier—a pathetic sight. A little further on, in the field, are to be seen the isolated graves of two German officers, one of them of the family of the Chief of the General Staff, Von Moltke (view below). Between these graves and the border of the castle park many Germans lie buried. The fighting was very violent here in the trenches which the enemy had dug at right angles to the road. Outflanked on the north by the turning movement we have spoken of, the castle and the farm, as well as the park, were carried at the point of the bayonet. From this moment, Esternay, situated in the hollow, could offer no serious resistance, and the French entered it without difficulty.
Re-cross the railway line and take the first road on the right, leading into Esternay and to the Place de l'Église (48 km.). The church was transformed into an ambulance station by the Germans.
The following evidence given by the deputy-mayor and other witnesses before the Official Enquiry Commission recalls painful incidents of the occupation by the enemy.
GRAVES OF GERMAN OFFICERS
"On September 6 the Germans pillaged nine-tenths of the houses in the town. This pillage was organised, objects of all kinds, linen and other belongings, being placed on carts."
Another witness declared: "About 3 o'clock in the afternoon, thirty-five or forty Germans came out of the church shouting, and leading with them M. Laurenceau, aged 52 years. The latter on arriving at the road made a movement as if to escape and was immediately felled to the ground. Then, although he lay quite still, he received three bullets."
FARM SET ON FIRE AT CHAMPGUYON
A third witness declared: "On the night of September 6 I was with my two daughters and Mme. Lhomme in hiding under the stairs of the cellar of Mme. Macé, a widow. Groups of German soldiers kept passing round the house, and some had even come into the cellar without discovering us. Between 11 p.m. and midnight, one of these bands having found women's clothes in a cupboard, came towards our hiding-place. As they had seen us, Mme. Macé exclaimed: 'Do you wish to kill old women?' To which they replied: 'No, no harm to grandmother,' and pushed her on one side. They next tried to push me aside, crying 'Fraulein all naked,' but could not move me. One of them then shouldered his rifle. I raised my arm to strike up the muzzle, but he was too quick for me, and, taking advantage of the space thus disclosed between the young girls and myself, lowered his arm and fired. Mme. Lhomme was wounded in the left arm by a ball which then shattered the left arm of my daughter Marcelle, aged 27 years. She died between 4 and 5 o'clock on the afternoon of September 7."