One to each block was the average, except around the cathedral, where two hotels that face it and the Palace of Justice had been pounded but not destroyed.

Other shops and residences facing the cathedral had been ripped open from roof to cellar.

In one a fire was burning briskly, and firemen were playing on it with hose.

I was their only audience.

A sight that at other times would have collected half of Rheims and blocked traffic, in the excitement of the bombardment failed to attract.