Show FIRST AND AT N 1 ij LAST CHURCH C 1111 U ID C TH SHELLED rh L L TV J D Me victim of hun ceroc ferocity ity even up to signing of armistice BELLS ARE CARRIED AWAY after suffering in n 1521 its first at tack sacred edifice got beit germans ans Parth parthian lan shot rull full of his torla interest by M LABBE A POULIN in the nev nan york tork hoi aid Ar dennes france 1119 it Is n tact filet known to 0 o everyone that lint tho 0 mans offer after having despe blOy begged for tile the shelled tile tho town own of Ile even tit lip to the exact mo of the beginning of the m mistier armistice cowardly find without any military reason whatever they aimed espe dully tit at tile tho monuments which were well known know n to them as they had oc coupled the lio city for four years among tile alio latter tile church Is os es to be mentioned it Is a tint goehle flamboyant structure with five linvel the he largest nud and perhaps tile alio most beautiful ot of tile country tills church lias has had among other princely visitors tile lie lionor honor of celeb lie ringe ceremony of Clin clinkles rles IX find elisabeth of austria 1670 wo we ninke make bold toa W assert that it was tho the last of oe the churches shelled A fact less known although not less interesting 13 3 lint it wits was also tile the first of the churches chu relies to be shelled begun lit in 1100 it was 22 years scars old when lit in 1521 tile tho Im impel bals besl besieged eged frezieres cres defended by bayard haynard Hayn rd the without four fear or ills i relate elate that wc roin aloyed for the first alino during tills this siege tito enemy shelled the town for exactly it a month front from august 31 until september 27 7 find and ono part anit was entirely des destroyed troied tito tho monuments its 03 well its as the church were struck by b tho the projectiles ns ts Is proved by the alie archives of tile the epoch kept hept in the depository tory of the department ot of mo ble several large holes had to be mended in the lie roof of the church steeple as the glass framo ol of ille alie round of the steeple which had been broken during tile tho siege many times bombarded one can notice that the bombardments of tills epoch even compared to dioso that the history of after times ens to note were not na as certain people might bell believe eye gamas 0 of calill children tito the church of INIe was vas however to undergo more terrible ones onca on three different occasions completed with difficulty dK culty in 1620 that Is to say a hundred and twenty years after the laying eying of the foundation stone etwas soon to h have ave lived the golden goiden ngo ago of its life to say any nothing ot of the alie tiro fire which broke out lit in its steeple 1082 neither of the nets acts of vandalism of the revolutionists let us speak only of the bombardments bombardment which chich it tito prussians shelled it in 1810 1815 an inscription on oil the wall reminds the tender render that it hns nearly ruined it lost its beautiful stained glass vh dows of tile the sixteenth century and the exterior pinnacles were seriously lam dam aged several shells penetrated into the interior causing a great deal of and tile damage of 1815 been rep repaired olred when a new cloud aoud arose on oil the lie horizon and threatened flirt Ble tn 1 1870 now new invasion noty new fears anti now new ruins for our town on oil the lie fron for the of december and of Ja january nunry 1871 geranan christmas box tho ifie ellenby ngath agalli me ali tito tho church was principally almed tit nt and was once more the lie victim ti til of lie iho shells elicits which spoiled aliu lits steeple t ee 1 to burst tile tho vaults broke the lie sculptures anti stained glass windows during nearly forty years hose ruins lind find bren been repaired reit tito hurch of lind passed the renter part of tills this great var without da calange lange but in 1017 ibid 1018 the ger cler malis took away the lie alve beautiful bias tile tho most tuneful mid arid tile lie loudest j oud lit in tile ho country and what Is worse broko broke the organ lit in order to get down tip iha bells hut but tho lie church itself remained it would have been too much luck for our church chur cli the destiny of which seemed ti united tilted to 0 nil 11 our notional national boes woes boes woes on oil november r 10 less than twenty four hours before e the tir nr tile fury of the retreating cating on cn enty poured out in the vile bombardment of which ladled twenty hours among other buildings file lie church of our lady was struck all the lio stained glass ganss were totally or partly broken and what Is moro inore important tho the flamboyant mul nong lions or of any windows were broken no church was struck by matly many bombs settle of willell lilt tile tho lantern of hie file steeple the tower of the signalman bome struck tile top boino tile the vault som ho interior r of the coun ter forts thanks ti tile arini armistice stice which ramo rame just lit in lino line to prevent the ho enemy from destroying Blez leres totally tile ho damage though Is not beyond repair lilt it Is cert certain too dint tills bombardment Is mother r proof in bof of the lie insincerity and the say agery of our ette cn cintes intes abid a fact worth noticing that our cli church tile lio first church to in lil story was ns balso the last |