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256 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
where shells had struck. The northern part had escaped
damage altogether. We saw several yawning rents at the street
level, where shells had laid open the cellars, leaving large
gaping chasms. The Argentine Consul, who, like most other
people, had taken refuge in a cellar, had been killed by one of
these shells.
In other places the shells had struck the roof, carrying
away the whole garret floor, and leaving here and there
nothing but the tattered shreds of girders rattling in the
breeze. Frequently a shell had struck in the middle of a house-
front without causing any damage visible from the street,
beyond tearing a huge hole in the wall and shattering all the
panes and window frames. Black streaks on the walls showed
that fire had broken out. On closer examination we found,
as a rule, that the principal havoc had been wrought on the
side away from the street.
We also saw how the shells had struck the roadway and
burst, ripping up the stone pavement and throwing large
mounds and fragments against adjacent houses, where cavities
biting into the brickwork gaped red out of the white plaster-
ing. In one place we could see how a shell had carried away a
roof and some ten yards of coping, and had then crashed into
the opposite house on the other side of the street.
All rubbish and brickwork which had tumbled into the
streets and on the pavements had already been piled up in
heaps, but had not yet been carted away for want of horses
and vehicles. Among the heaps of ruins at the Marché aux
Souliers the gas was escaping from burst pipes and burning
with blue wavering flames, presenting a weird spectacle at
night.
Our run also brought us to St. Jacques, a magnificent
church, rich in works of art representing subjects from sacred
history. The candles burning in front of some images of saints
were inadequate to dispel the gloom. The features of the
Saviour on a Crucifix revealed abysmal depths of pain and
sorrow ; it seemed as if darkness had descended for ever on
the earth and overpowered him. The worshippers were easily
counted. Among them I noticed a few young women con-
fessing their sins in the confessional chairs, giving the listening
priests an insight into some of the most secret recesses of
human life.
St. Paul’s can boast if anything a still greater ecclesiastical
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