[Illustration: GERMAN CYCLIST AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE RUE BELLOY (1914)]
_Descending the Rue de la République we come to the Rue Bellon, which
crosses it. We turn to the right, at the place shown on the opposite
photograph, and a few steps further on, reach the +Carrefour de la
Licorne+._ This is one of the most devastated places of the town. The
first view was taken during the German occupation, a German cyclist
being snapshotted while riding. The other views show the state of the
ruins in 1914 and the present condition.
[Illustration: RUE ROUGEMAILLE (1914)]
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE CARREFOUR DE LA LICORNE (1914)]
_We return to the Rue de la République._ A few yards down, on the
right, we see the charred house, the gable-end of which appears in the
view on the following page.
[Illustration: BURNT HOUSE RUE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE (1914)]
_We next reach the level of the Hôtel du Grand Cerf, of which the
signboard is seen on the view below._ The German headquarters staff
stayed there, and that is no doubt the reason for its remaining intact.
The Mayor of Senlis, M. Odent, was taken there on September 2, after
his arrest at the town-hall, just before being taken to Chamant to be
shot. The proprietor of the hotel having left the town, the German
officers commandeered a restaurant keeper and made him prepare a meal
for thirty people, with "ices and champagne."
[Illustration: FIRE RUE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE (1914)]
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE NOTARY'S HOUSE (1914)]
The houses which face the hotel and which were still burning when the
above photograph was taken, are those of the local justice of the peace
and public notary.
Looking through the entrance gates of the latter residence, one beholds
the scene of desolation reproduced in the opposite picture.
[Illustration: BURNT COURT OF JUSTICE
(1914)]
_On the left of the Rue de la République_ we come to a building
which served as the sub-prefect's office and +Court of Justice+.
This building, formerly a hospital, dates from the beginning of the
eighteenth century.
The work of the incendiaries is seen by comparing the opposite view
with that given below.
All the ruins already pointed out, as well as those that will be seen
further on, were made systematically.
[Illustration: RUE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE
(1914)]
The soldiers to whom this work was assigned arrived in columns; at the
sound of an officer's whistle a certain number of men left the ranks
and smashed in the doors of the houses and the shop-fronts; then others
came who started the fires with grenades and fuses; lastly, the patrols
who followed fired incendiary projectiles into those buildings which
did not take fire quickly enough.
[Illustration: COURT OF JUSTICE BEFORE THE WAR]
The above view was taken during the German occupation. It shows the Red
Cross staff conveying the wounded from the overflowing hospital to the
College of Saint-Vincent.
[Illustration: RUINS AT THE CORNER OF THE RUE DU TEMPLE]
_After crossing the Nonette, one arrives at the junction of the Rue de
la République and the Rue Vieille-de-Paris._
_At the corner stands the inn "+Le Débit Simon+," of which a view is
given below._ Simon was without doubt the first victim of the German
occupation.
Tn the middle of the afternoon a German patrol, who had just been
drinking at the inn, was shot at by a French rearguard, who had left
Simon's a few moments before.
[Illustration: DÉBIT SIMON (SIMON'S INN) THE PROPRIETOR WAS KILLED BY
THE GERMANS]
The Germans immediately seized the innkeeper, accused him of having
fired, and shot him point-blank.
Other pretended reprisals were made, causing the death of twenty
unoffending civilians, of which the reader will learn the details
further on.
The view below shows the corner of the Place Saint-Martin where stands
the Café Simon. Two German cyclists are seen in the photograph, which
was taken on September 4, 1914. It will be noticed that the one on the
left has a lady's bicycle, which certainly did not come out of the Army
stores!
[Illustration: GERMAN CYCLISTS PLACE SAINT-MARTIN]
[Illustration: RUINS FAUBOURG ST. MARTIN]
[Illustration: BURNT BUILDING 17, FAUBOURG ST. MARTIN]
_Following the Rue du Faubourg St. Martin shown above_, the tourist
will pass a pretty estate (_view below_), the old quarters of the
Gardes du Corps, which was completely burnt and the ruins of which
produce a startling effect.
In front, partly burnt, are the headquarters of the Cavalry. Still
further on, at the exit of the town, is the +Hospital+.
It was there that the battle raged most fiercely.
The German advance-guards, beating back the French soldiers delayed
in the Faubourg St. Martin, were met by the fire of the machine-guns
stationed outside the town, along the road.
[Illustration: EQUIPMENTS ABANDONED DURING THE BATTLE]
The Germans penetrated into the hospital and the neighbouring gardens,
trying to outflank the French defences which they thought were placed
on the road, but a deadly fire from the transverse trenches made them
fall back. Furious at this, they seized the passers-by and made them
walk in the middle of the road, they themselves keeping close to the
walls.
[Illustration: MARKS OF GERMAN BULLETS IN THE HOSPITAL]
Among the hostages were a Mme. Dauchy and her young daughter. The
latter was shot in the leg. Georges Leymarie was killed; one of his
companions, Levasseur, while carrying the body along the pavement
beside the hospital wall, suffered the same fate. Two other hostages,
Audibert and Minouflet, the latter wounded, had also reached the
pavement of the hospital. A German officer discharged a revolver at
Audibert and left him for dead; he ordered Minouflet to show his wounds
and, finding them insufficient, put a bullet through his shoulder.
Three other people fell. The shrieks of the victims reached the French,
who ceased fire. The surviving hostages then slipped past the trees
along the road, under German fire, up to the French lines. The Germans
took advantage of this to make a fresh attack, but were repulsed.
The hospital, situated as it was in the midst of the fighting, was not
spared, A German officer, wounded by one of the first shots, entered
the hospital and meeting an old pensioner, M. Maumus, on the threshold,
shot him down in cold blood.
The ward where the French and Moroccan wounded lay was fired on with
machine guns, as shown in the above photograph. By a wonderful chance
no one was hit, the Crucifix also remained untouched in the centre of a
wreath of bullets.
_The tourist will now, retracing his steps, turn to the right into the
Rue des Jardiniers, whence he will have a good view of the whole town.
Always keeping to the left he will pass through the Meaux Gate into the
Rue de Meaux which borders the +College of St. Vincent+ (p. 64). (If on
foot, it would be better to follow the line of the ramparts Bellevue
and Saint-Vincent, instead of the Rue des Jardiniers. At the Meaux Gate
he will go down the steps into the Rue de Meaux.)_
_Back in the Rue de la République, he will go up as far as the Rue
Odent, which skirts the Hôtel du Grand Cerf. By this road he will
arrive at the Place de la Halle, continued to the right by the Rue
Saint-Hilaire, which leads to the church of +Saint-Pierre+ (see p.
60)._
[Illustration: TRACES OF SHELLS ON THE CATHEDRAL (Photograph by M. H.)]
_From the Place Saint-Pierre one goes to the left into the little
Rue aux Flageards which passes in front of the north doorway of the
cathedral, of which a view is given opposite._ The tower on the right
and the spire were struck by several shells.
_Continuing along the Place Mauconseil and turning to the left into the
Rue Villevert one reaches the charming square which lies in front of
the parvis of the +Cathedral+._
_(See pp. 53-59 for descriptions concerning the artistic features of
the cathedral.) Here we shall only give the incidents of September 1914
in which the building shared._
[Illustration: DÉBRIS AT THE FOOT OF THE CATHEDRAL TOWERS (Photograph
by M. H.)]
During the day of September 2, 1914, about fifty shells struck the old
church and caused rather serious damage, as shown in the following
photographs. The vicar of the cathedral, the Abbé Dourlent, went about
the streets of Senlis during the bombardment and had 125 inhabitants,
who had been unable to find shelter in the cellars, escorted out of the
town by one of his curates. On his return to the vicarage, which stands
at the foot of the tower (_the house visible in the photograph on p.
54, on the right, behind the two trees_), shortly after the Germans had
entered the town, the vicar heard violent and repeated blows in the
cathedral. Coming out into the square he saw cyclists, holding a large
fragment of a statue (which had been flung to the ground by a shell)
with which they had battered in the small door of the cathedral (_that
on the right in the view on p. 54_). Others, axes in their hands, were
attacking the door of the steeple on the south side of the tower.
The Germans, revolver in hand, rushed at the vicar, and their leader
commanded him to take them to the top of the steeple, accusing him of
having allowed machine guns to be placed there which had fired on them.
As they climbed the first step they heard the first shots fired in the
lower part of the town.
[Illustration: TRACES OF SHELLS ON THE CATHEDRAL]
The soldiers sprang up and declared the vicar their prisoner.
The visit to the steeple confirmed the Abbé Dourlent's declaration that
no one had been up and that no military preparations had ever been made
there. The men drew off, but a few moments later the porter of the
town-hall brought the vicar the order to render himself immediately as
hostage at the Grand Cerf Hotel.
When he arrived the Headquarters Staff had left, taking with them the
mayor, who was shot that evening.
The incendiarism had already started; the vicar saw incendiary bombs
thrown into the houses facing the hotel, which are shown in the
photograph _on page 41_. He entered the vicarage, then returned to the
Grand Cerf to learn what fate awaited him.
It was there that a German superior officer, who spoke French, said
these few words which throw light on the events at Senlis:
_Poor Curé, poor Senlis, your civilians have fired on us and we have
been shot at from the top of your church tower, therefore Senlis is
doomed. You see that street in flames_ (the Rue de la République),
_well! this night the whole town will be completely burned down._
[Illustration: TRACES OF SHELLS ON THE CATHEDRAL]
=We have orders to make of Senlis another Louvain. A terrible example
is needed for Paris and for the whole of France.=
The vicar implored for mercy for the town, and the officer promised
to intervene with his superiors in order to obtain a mitigation of
the sentence. Whether he gained his point or whether the giving up of
the direct march on Paris caused the part of scape-goat assigned to
the peaceful little town to appear of less immediate necessity, the
incendiarism was limited to the Rue de la République and the Quartier
de la Licorne.
_The tourist will visit the +Cathedral+ (see pp. 53-59),
+Saint-Frambourg+ (p. 60), the +Castle+ (pp. 61-63), and will then go
down the old Rue du Châtel._
[Illustration: ABBÉ DOURLENT]
This road was the scene of an outrage of 1789, famous in the annals of
Senlis. The clockmaker Billon, seeing beneath his windows the company
of musketeers from which, as usurer, he had been dismissed, raised
his musket and killed the commandant and several others. Trapped in
his house, he backed from room to room still adding to the number of
his victims. At the moment when they seized him the mine that he had
prepared exploded, destroying his house and leaving twenty-six dead and
forty injured.
_The Rue du Châtel ends in the Square Henri IV., in the corner of which
stands the +Town-hall+._ Its façade (_see below_) dates from 1495.
Above the door is the bust of Henri IV., with an inscription taken from
the letters-patent sent by the king to Senlis as thanks for the town's
resistance against the Leaguers:
"_Mon heur a prins son commencement en la ville de Senlis, dont il
s'est depuis semé et augmenté par tout le royaume._"
(_My good fortune had its beginning in the Town of Senlis, whence it
has since sown itself and spread over all the kingdom._)
The Square Henri IV. received the first shells of the bombardment in
September, 1914, which killed a fireman on guard at the town-hall.
When the Germans penetrated into Senlis, one of their superior officers
went to the town-hall and asked for the "burgomaster."
[Illustration: TOWN HALL]
[Illustration: LAST PHOTOGRAPH OF M. ODENT (in the middle)]
The mayor, M. Odent, came forward.
For three generations the Odents had been mayors of Senlis. The
grandfather of the present mayor distinguished himself during the
cholera epidemic in 1832; his father was seized as hostage in 1870 and
narrowly escaped being shot.
On the eve of the German occupation, M. Odent took his family to Paris
and on his return to Senlis wrote a postcard to M. Cultru, oldest
member of the municipal council, as follows:--
"Having at last placed my wife in safety, I now belong entirely to
Senlis."
M. Odent had the presentiment that he would not come out of German
hands alive; a fervent catholic, he performed his religious duties in
view of a swiftly approaching death, and fastened a crucifix on his
breast.
Above we give the last photograph of M. Odent. It was taken on August
5, 1914, during a military fête. M. Odent is in the middle.
The mayor was violently upbraided by the officer because of the
deserted aspect of the town--barely 1,000 inhabitants remained out of
7,000, and during the bombardment houses and shops were closed. He was
also blamed for the absence of proclamations exhorting the inhabitants
to deposit their arms at the town-hall and to offer no resistance....
M. Odent pointed out the rapidity of events, and the peaceable ways of
the old city. He was nevertheless led before the headquarters staff at
the Grand Cerf Hotel. Immediately after, came the sound of the first
shots fired by the French rearguard at the lower end of the town. The
officer was furious and vowed that he would hold the mayor responsible
and that his head should answer for the lives of the German soldiers.
The town-clerk suggested to M. Odent that the deputy mayor should be
fetched, but the latter refused, saying: "One victim is enough."
[Illustration: GERMAN SOLDIERS PHOTOGRAPHED AT SENLIS]
The resigned hostage was taken from the Grand Cerf to Chamant (_see
p. 66_). He was brutally treated, his gloves snatched from him and
flung in his face, his stick seized and brought down violently on his
head. M. Odent and some other hostages spent several hours of cruel
waiting for their fate. At last, at about 11 o'clock in the evening,
they were brought before several officers. After having been made to
stand at attention they were ordered to lie flat, their hands stretched
forward; they were then again told to stand at attention. The officers,
satisfied that they had thus asserted their authority, for form's sake
then proceeded to interrogate the mayor, and in spite of his denial
persisted in accusing him of having opened fire upon the German troops.
They then informed him that he would be shot.
[Illustration: M. ODENT'S GRAVE AT CHAMANT]
M. Odent returned to his companions in captivity, gave them his papers
and money, shook hands with them, and bade them a dignified farewell.
He then went back to the officers. At their command two soldiers
dragged him about ten yards further off and put two bullets through his
head.
The ground was hastily hollowed out and the body was laid under such a
thin layer of earth that the feet were not covered. It was here that
the cross shown in the above photograph was erected. The tourist can
visit it when passing through Chamant (_see p. 66_). A few hours before
the mayor's death six other hostages had been shot and buried in the
same field. M. Odent's companions were more fortunate, they were sent
back to Senlis the next day. On September 12 the bodies of the mayor
and the six other victims were exhumed and taken to the cemetery in the
town (_see p. 52_). Other hostages narrowly escaped death. At about
eight o'clock in the evening, in the tailor's shop at the corner of
the Rue du Châtel, in front of the town-hall, three inhabitants were
seized and taken to Chamant. To these, in the course of the journey,
were added a dozen others. They were about to share the fate of the
preceding hostages when one of them, who spoke German, succeeded in
inducing the Headquarters staff to set them free.
_By the Rue Vieille de Paris (a continuation of the Rue du Châtel) we
descend to the lower part of the town._ (In 1358 the "Jacques," masters
of Senlis, drove back the nobles who had entered the lower end of the
road by rolling down the slope heavily laden wagons which overturned
anything that happened to be in their way.)
_In front of the old Convent of the Carmes, No. 3 of the Rue Vieille
de Paris, stand +Megret's+ Baths, to which a café is attached._ In the
afternoon of September 2 some Germans smashed in the door and demanded
drink. It was no doubt at that time that other German soldiers entered
the café Simon, a little further on (_see p. 43_). The two proprietors
suffered the same fate. Mégret had barely finished serving the patrol
with a dozen bottles of wine when a shot, fired point-blank, felled him
to the ground.
On _page 49_ appears the photograph of three young German soldiers
belonging to that column of incendiarists and murderers who did so
much damage to Senlis. With threats they forced the photographer, M.
Rozycki, to whom we are indebted for the views taken during the German
occupation, to take the photograph we have reproduced.
[Illustration: PICTURE IN THE TOWN HALL [Execution of Hostages in 1418]]
_A little way past the Convent of the Carmes (which is turned into
barracks, its chapel being used as a clothing store), we follow, on the
right_, the line of ramparts that goes from the _Rue Vieille de Paris
(where the Paris gate used to be)_ to the _Place de Creil (where stood
the gate of the same name)_.
These ramparts were made in the thirteenth and fourteenth and
strengthened in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The first portion is called +le Rempart des Otages+ in memory of the
executions of 1418, during the fight between the Burgundians, who
occupied Senlis, and the Armagnacs, who besieged it.
The town, reduced to famine, was to surrender on April 18 if no help
arrived, and six hostages were handed over as guarantee: two abbots,
two nobles, and two commoners. Help was signalled on the day of the
18th; but the Armagnacs, before leaving, decapitated four hostages at
the foot of the ramparts on which the tourist is standing. In return,
the besieged flung down from the walls the heads of twenty prisoners
captured during a sally.
Six centuries have elapsed, but it will be seen that, towards hostages,
the Germans still retain the mental attitude of the Middle Ages.
A picture by Mélingue (reproduced above), which hangs in the town-hall,
commemorates the execution of the hostages of Senlis in 1418.
The next rampart is called the +Montauban+, after the square tower
which was added to it in 1588. It was in the dry moat below that
the Archers' Company held their practice. The head of the company,
the "King of the Crossbow," was exempted by Henri III. from paying
taxes, and ever since that remote period archery has always been held
in honour at Senlis. At certain fêtes as many as 4,000 archers were
assembled, part of them belonging to the town, the others coming from
the surrounding country.
From the rampart, the view of old Senlis, spread out at the foot of the
cathedral, is particularly picturesque.
[Illustration: SOLDIERS' GRAVES IN THE CEMETERY]
_From the Creil Gate, where you come out on leaving the ramparts, the
+Arena+ can be visited (see p. 65). After that, turn down the Avenue
Vernois, at the end of which is seen the entrance to the cemetery._ The
monument raised in memory of the hostages who were murdered in 1914
(_view below_) is in the western part of the cemetery. In the northern
part is the grave of the soldiers who fell during the battles of Senlis
(_view above_).
[Illustration: MONUMENT OF THE HOSTAGES IN THE CEMETERY]
From the Boulevard Pasteur, which is a continuation of the Avenue
Vernois, there is a pretty view of the country.
At the corner of the Rue Saint-Joseph stands a convent where seventy
nuns remained during the German occupation. Some German soldiers made
them open the door and demanded wine: "Oh!" answered the Reverend
Mother, "the nuns only drink liquorice-water."
_The tourist now finds himself at the Compiègne gate, from where he
began his visit to the town. This is also the starting point fixed in
the itinerary for the journey to Meaux (see p. 66)._
ARTISTIC SENLIS
(See plan inserted between pp. 36-37)
=The Cathedral of Notre-Dame= (historical monument)
[Illustration: CATHEDRAL]
The cathedral was begun in 1153 on the site of a church which had
been destroyed and rebuilt several times since the third century. The
work of construction was slow, as funds were often lacking, despite
the help given by the kings of France. For several consecutive years
collections were repeatedly made throughout the country in order to
obtain resources for the bishop.
The consecration of the unfinished church took place in 1191.
Towards 1240, the transept was raised and the spire, which is still the
pride of Senlis, built.
In 1504, lightning set fire to the cathedral, which went on burning for
two days. Luckily the spire was saved. The reconstruction of all the
higher parts and of the façades of the transept lasted until 1560 and
completely transformed the appearance of the building.
During the Revolution it was used as a ballroom and afterwards as a
store-house for fodder. In 1801 it became once more a place of worship.
[Illustration: CATHEDRAL SEEN FROM THE STEEPLE OF ST. PIERRE]
It has been seen (_p. 46-47_) that the cathedral was not spared by the
German shells on September 2, 1914, and that its vicar very nearly
shared the mayor's tragic fate.
The opposite view is taken from the top of the steeple of St. Peter's
Church.
In the foreground are seen the buildings of the old bishop's palace,
standing on a Gallo-Roman site; one of the towers of this enclosure was
utilised in their construction.
After 1790 Senlis was no longer a bishopric, and an archæological
museum is now established in the old dwelling-place of the bishops.
The west façade of the cathedral, which escaped the fire of 1504, has
retained the simplicity and bareness of the twelfth century church and
is in remarkable contrast with the richness of the side façades built
in the sixteenth century.
[Illustration: PLACE DU PARVIS]
The great doorway, which will be fully described further on, is flanked
by two small doors surmounted by a tympanum, the arcading of which
forms a curious ornamentation.
The two towers were originally alike; it was only in the middle of the
thirteenth century that the spire was added to the south tower.
This +SPIRE+ is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture and for nearly
seven centuries has been the admiration of architects and archæologists
because of the science, audacity and solidity of its construction,
which was proof against fire, the inclemency of the weather, and German
shells.
[Illustration: THE SPIRE OF THE CATHEDRAL]
Its summit is 255 feet above the ground. Octagonal in shape, it rests
on the square base of the tower.
The transition from the square to the octagon is masked by the four
pinnacles (each supported by three small columns), which occupy the
four corners of the square.
The upper part of the spire is pierced with eight highly ornamented
dormer windows; the arrises of the spire are decorated with crockets.
This construction reveals the great art of the architect, who knew how
to break the monotony of the spire's long, sloping lines without making
them appear heavy.
The little Place du Parvis shown above is charming in its archaical
decoration.