thousand shells were fired at the chateau until it was
reduced to a pile of rubbish. Even the garden walls remained standing
only in isolated spots, and the surrounding forest was so completely
wrecked that great boughs and whole trees lay criss-crossed in an
inextricable tangle.

Near the chateau there was a field several acres in extent and in it
alone we counted about a thousand craters which had been made by big
shells. The road which passed in front of the chateau was full of
great holes twenty feet in circumference blown out of the solid
macadam. After this bombardment, a desperate infantry assault rolled
up the hill and captured it, but only after a frightful melee in
which the defenders fought and died to the last man. I noticed a
shutter remaining upon one window of the chateau which had been
pierced by fifty-two bullets. By a singular chance there was one room
which had been little damaged. In it as we entered there stood a table
at which the German officers had been eating when interrupted by the
final attack; their knives and forks lay on the plates, which still
held meat and carrots, partly eaten, and wine half filled the glasses;
two of the chairs had been hurriedly pushed back from the table, while
a third, overturned, lay upon its side.

* * * * *

_Sunday, September 13th._ We spent the night at Bar-sur-Seine,
sleeping in the hallway of a little hotel, and next morning went to
the headquarters of General Joffre which, during the battle, were at
Chatillon-sur-Seine.

* * * * *

We returned to the battlefields in the neighborhood of Fere
Champenoise early in the afternoon.

* * * * *

We entered Fere Champenoise for the second time after dark, meaning to
spend the night there. The town was packed with transport wagons and
troops. All the houses were dark, the only illumination being from
lamps on wagons and automobiles which stood in the market-place and
along the main highway through the town.

It had rained nearly all day and was still raining, and although we
were loath to sleep outdoors or in the automobile, we at first saw no
possibility of finding lodgings elsewhere. Captain Parker and I left
the machine and started to reconnoitre through the side streets. The
rain, the low-hanging clouds, and the high walls of the houses, all
combined to make the bottom of the deep narrow streets blacker than
any