The manner of all was subdued and gentle, like those who stand at an open grave.
The shells played the most inconceivable pranks.

In some streets the houses and shops along one side were entirely wiped out and on the other untouched.

In the Rue du Cardinal du Lorraine every house was gone.

Where they once stood were cellars filled with powdered stone.

Tall chimneys that one would have thought a strong wind might dislodge were holding themselves erect, while the surrounding walls, three feet thick, had been crumpled into rubbish.
In some houses a shell had removed one room only, and as neatly as though it were the work of masons and carpenters.