Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-03-08
The DesOIatiOn of St. Denis.

a fearful picture Is drawn by the cor
respondent Of the London Times with the
Saxon army, of the effects of the lombard
ment upon the cathedral town Of st. Denis:
q" On Tuesday left lie Vert Gallant to
work my way round TO the south, and in
my progress to the headquarters of the
German armies | saw scarcely anything
but ruin in every town and village through
which l passed, up to the time l reached
ST. German next day. Certainly there
was peace everywhere. Villages which a
week ago were filled with troops, | found
without a soldier Not a cannon or rife
disturbed the stiffness of the lonely plains
and deserted homesteads but the results
Of the bombardment and defense met the
eye everywhere along the route, and one
could not but feel that destroying angel
had passed over one Of the most beautiful,
parts of Europe | passed through the
village Of Aronouyile, southwest Of Gen
essc and northeast of St. Denis. 1t had
been under the fire of the forts of St.
Denis. and how it had suffered La Briche
had done terrible execution there. The
streets were furrowed with shells, and
nearly every house was disfgured. 1t was
the same at Garges but St. Dennis itself
was the sight. l found that the town had
been thrown open, and L entered it. From
the northern road you approach 1t through
long suburb of nearly mile Of houses.
don't think single one had escaped the
effects of the fire Of the German siege
batteries. Roofs had been smashed in,
walls had been shivered to pieces, stories
had been burnt till not a beam or window
sash was left, aud certainly not one house
in the faubourg could boast of whole
pane Of glass. On coming to the enceinte
of the town | could readily understand how
the bombardment Of St. Denis must have
the government of Paris. The
ditch had been ploughed up with shells
the passions had been battered, the shell
had torn the earthwork about the embras-
ures, and reduced much of the defenses to
a state Of dilapidation nearly approaching
to complete destruction. Inside the for
tifcations matters were even worse. The
gasometer had been blown up, the very
gas-lamps in the streets had been smashed
into small pieces, and the stone copings on
the roofs OF the houses had been split and
hurled from their positions down into the
streets below. The Rue de Paris, the
street Of the town, was terribly
battered, and so was the Rue Compose. l
remarked that corner houses had suffered
most severely. Their angular section had
been struck as if by design. Very many
Of the houses were without chimneys-the
whole stack having been carried away. The
stately official residence Of the Sous-Pre-
feet had been dreadfully pounded. The
Imperial arms in stone, on the front OF 1t,
had been entirely denuded of the eagle,
and half ton OF stonework had been car
ried away from the front of the building.
Happily the Abbey is scarcely injured.
One or two shells struck one side Of it,
and damaged little Of the stonework, but
that is all. German soldiers were on the
tower, German officers and German SOL
diers were parading the nave and the
aisles, and | heard an eloquent French
man telling several of them that it was
of the Prussians to have fired
in the direction Of a building in which
reposed the ashes of great sovereigns,
whose memory ought to be sacred not only
to France, but to all the civilized world
There were perhaps 10000 bags. filled
with earth, piled up in the Abbey, and
about one-half the nave had been dug up
to a depth of ten or twelve feet. On in
quiry l found that it had been burrowed
for the purpose of filling those bags. The
pretty parish church of St. Denis, on the
Boulevard Giot, had suffered much more
than the Abbey. Some dozen bombs had
fallen through the roof and come right to
the foorings. l was told that no fewer
than ten thousand shells had entered St.
Denis, and that during the five or six days
Of the bombardment many families had
never seen the light of Heaven. They
themselves in the cellars. Food :
lad been dreadfully scarce there but
after the occupation of the forts and the
.own by the Prussians it had begun to
como in. The aspect of the place was ex-
on Tuesday. In the direction
IF the Notifications the pavements of the
streets were cup" as we say in London.
They formed barricades, which had not
been taken down About one-third the
shops were open; the rest were either
wholly or or partially closed. Scarcely
house had windows. They had all been
smashed by the concussion caused by the
fire from the Prussian bate
les"