t
realising the strength and beauty of the French character under
adversity, feared, seeing the cathedral in flames, that the populace
might wreak vengeance on them, and it was exceedingly difficult to get
them to leave the cathedral. Many of the prisoners fled into corners and
hid, and some of them even penetrated into the palace of the Archbishop,
which was in flames. All the world knows and admires the bravery of the
cure of the cathedral, M. Landrieux, who took upon himself the defence
of the prisoners, for fear insults might be hurled at them. He knowingly
risked his life; but when, next day, some of his confreres endeavoured
to praise him, he replied: "My friends, I never before realised how easy
it is to die."

One of the churches in the city was heavily draped in black, and I asked
the sacristan if they had prepared for the funeral of a prominent
citizen. He told me that they were that day bringing home the body of a
young man of high birth of the neighbourhood, but that it was not for
him that the church was decked in mourning. The draperies had hung there
since August 1914--"Since every son of Rheims who is brought home is as
noble as the one who comes to-day, and alas! nearly every day brings us
one of our children."

We lunched in the hotel before the cathedral, where each shell-hole has
an ordinary white label stuck beside it with the date. The landlord
remarked: "If you sit here long enough, and have the good luck to be in
some safe part of the building, you may be able to go and stick a label
by a hole yourself."

After lunch we went out to the Chateau Polignac. To a stranger it would
appear to be almost entirely destroyed, but when M. de Polignac visited
it recently he simply remarked that it was "less spoilt than he had
imagined." This was just one other example of the thousands one meets
daily of the spirit of noble and peasant _de ne pas s'en faire_, but to
keep only before them the one idea, Victory for France, no matter what
may be the cost.

We went later to call on the "'75," _chez elle_. Madame was in a
particularly comfortable home which had been prepared for her and where
she was safe from the inquisitive eyes of the Taubes. The men of the
battery were sitting round their guns, singing a somewhat lengthy ditty,
each verse ending with a declamation and a description of the beauty of
"la belle Suzanne." I asked them to whom Suzanne belonged and where the
fair damsel resided. "Oh," they repli