ront, and the sixth burst fifteen or twenty meters
from the bureau.
Next day we went to the Chateau of Baye and witnessed the traces of
the sack which this building has suffered. On the first floor a door
which leads into a room next to a gallery, where the owner had
collected valuable works of art, has been broken in; four glass
cabinets have been broken and another has been opened. According to
the declarations of the caretaker who, in the absence of her masters,
was unable to acquaint us of the full extent of the damage, the
principal objects stolen were jewels of Russian origin and gold
medals. We noticed that the mounts covered with black velvet, which
must have been taken out of the cases, were stripped of a part of the
jewels which had previously been affixed to them.
Baron de Baye's room was in the greatest disorder. Numerous objects
were strewn on the floor from the drawers which remained open. A
writing table had been broken open. A Louis XVI. commode and a bureau
a cylindre of the same period had been ransacked.
This room must have been occupied by a person of very high rank, for
on the door there still remains a chalk inscription, "J.K. Hoheit." No
one could give us exact information as to the identity of this
"Highness"; however, a General who lodged in the house of M. Houllier,
Town Councilor, told his host that the Duke of Brunswick and the staff
of the Tenth Corps had occupied the chateau.
The same day we visited the Chateau of Beaumont, which is near
Montmirail, and belongs to the Comte de la Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville.
The wife of the caretaker declared that this house had been sacked by
the Germans in the absence of its owners during an occupation which
lasted from the 4th to the 6th of September. The invaders left it in
an indescribable state of disorder and filth. The writing tables,
bureaus, and safes had been broken open. The jewel boxes had been
taken from the drawers and emptied.
On the doors of the rooms we could read inscriptions in chalk, among
which we took note of the following: "Excellenz," "Major von Ledebur,"
"Graf Waldersee."
MEUSE.
The Department of the Meuse, a great part of which the German armies
still occupy, has suffered cruelly. Important communes there have been
destroyed by fires lighted willfully by the Germans in the absence of
any kind of military necessity, and without the population's having
given any provocation for such atrocities by their attitude. Thi
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