Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1871-03-22
The Royal Tombs of Paris---St. Denis
Af,ef E0li.bardments

Inc recent bOmbardment OF Ot.
Denis imperilled the sepulchres of the
kings of France. The famous cathe
dral, however, did not SITTER Yery great
ly-A writer in the London News says
that the republicans who have painted
Libeate, Eg0lite, Eratern6te on it's por
talsy have not allowed their republican
ism to render them negligent of the
historical monuments the edifie5 con
tains; all around it has been banked
up high with sand bags, which have
caught and stopped several shells,
The stained glass is intact; or Ill but
intact. Only four shells have pene-
trated to the interior of the building.
One of the elaborately carved crosses
on the top of butress has been splint-
cred off and O coping stone has been
to the cathedral by the shells of the
enemy Tie splendid carving on the
arches around the great door has not
been harmed IN the least, although
there have been some very narrow
escapes. Several houses in the neigh
borhood have been utterly demolished,
and others fired.
The aspect of the cathedral inside is
very strange; the tombs of the kings
have all been protected by sand bags
the interior may be called one great
bag The statues have been covered
in with wooden frames, and the sand
bags laid over them. It is pleasant to
be able to state that never a statue has
had SO much as nose knocked off In
fact, considering the weight and dura-
tion of the bombadment, the cathedral
may be said to have escaped wonder
fully well. The same cannot be said
of the new church of ST. Denis, which
is just behind Fort La Briche. It's
steeple is wrecked; it's north side is
stove In and it's interior is chaos of
stones and smashed parpherna-
liza. The little Protestant chapel, how
ever, has suffered worse than any other
religious edifce in the place. One
might almost fancy its pastor trotting
dolefully about picking up the pieces
of his church from the open spaces in
the vicinity. The pulpit and the door
are intact as for the rest, if you had
all the bits collected, it would be worse
than any Chinese puzzle to put them
together again. Protestant school
rooms escaped the bombardment, with
the exception of having the windows
broken; but this morning the German.
hungry after wood, made a
raid upon the desks and forms Past
eur Saglier thought it hard, when there
was plenty of Roman Catholic combus-
tibles about the place, Protestants
should burn the furniture of the only
establishment in the town
ho ,,oiI x,ic5f Of ct ff,
General Zchlinski, who sent his chap
lain to exercise the evil spirits that were
troubling the evangelical woodwork.
An average has been calculated which
would give about two shells a house
throughout the town during the bonn
bardment of five days. with a few
seemingly fortuituous exceptions, the
appears to have been re-
markably impartial. IL ever a town
was effectually bombarded without be-
ing burned outright or fattened level
with the ground, ST. Denis is that
town. It must have been verify the
reign of the Prince of the Power of
Darkess, that period of i've days.
While the shells were crushing into the
houses, they were ploughing up the
streets as with the deepest subsoil
plough ever invented. There was no
safety for anybody but in the cold and
dark cellars; SO heavy were the pro-
jectiles, that not always in the cellars
was there found safety. There are
houses of which garrets and cellars are
battered into shapeless pile of stone
mortar. If you ask the lazy bystand-
ers whether any have been buried in
the ruins, they moodily mutter. ''Who
knows ?" shrug their shoulders, and
turn away. For myself, I think there
must not be a few underneath these
Jagged monumental piles but there is
nobody who has interest or energy to
explore, and "Whe knows?n may be
painted up as the vague epitaph.