They all agreed that after his range was found an artillery officer who missed it by from fifty to one hundred yards ought to be court-martialled.

The Germans "missed" by one mile.
The other excuse given by the Germans for the destruction of the cathedral was that the towers had been used by the French for military purposes.

On arriving at Rheims the question I first asked was whether this was true.

The abbe Chinot, cure of the chapel of the cathedral, assured me most solemnly and earnestly it was not.

The French and the German staffs, he said, had mutually agreed that on the towers of the cathedral no quick-firing guns should be placed, and by both sides this agreement was observed.