bombardment from September 3, 1914 to September 3, 1917. A siege extending over so considerable a period of time, attended as it has been, with months of ferocious assaults, with great loss of life, and the useless destruction of great works of art, may well be chronicled for that period. And this is the more the case since the details here gathered have not before been grouped together in their entirety.

It is much too soon to attempt a full history of the bombardment of Reims, but the outlines of the dreadful story may now be brought together. It should be sufficiently obvious that the bombardment of Reims is not a small episode in the war, but an event continuous from the very beginning.

The chronology here published has been compiled from the local newspapers published at Reims and at Paris. I have made use of "Le Courrier de la Champagne", published in Reims, "Le Petit Rémois", published in Paris from December 15, 1915, and the journal "Reims à Paris", also published in Paris from December, 1914. The editor of the latter paper having been called to the colours, it was merged with "La Marne" and has appeared as "Reims à Paris et la Marne" since October 4, 1916. The daily records of the bombardment, printed in "Le Courrier de la Champagne", are those compiled by its own staff. The records printed in the other papers are compiled from "Le Courrier de la Champagne" and "L'Éclaireur de l'Est", also printed in Reims. "Le Petit Rémois" has made free use of both these papers, and in addition has published the reports of its editor, M. Pierre Bienvenue, residing in Reims. Owing to the fury of the bombardment in April "Le Courrier" was forced to suspend publication for the time being, but "L'Éclaireur" was able to continue in a much reduced form.

The French Republic paid a fine tribute to this journalistic heroism when President Poincaré pinned the Cross of the Legion of Honour on the breast of M. Paul Dramas, the managing editor of "L'Éclaireur de l'Est" on June 18, 1917, when the same distinction was given to Cardinal Luçon, Archbishop of Reims, and Deputy Mayors J. de Bruignac and E. Charbonneaux, and some other heroic citizens. It is impossible to turn over the pages of these little Reims papers without a heartening sense of the courage that permitted their publication daily throughout a harrowing siege. Heroic journalism in a very true sense.

Among other sources of information special mention should be made of "Le Martyre de Reims", published anonymously in parts. It began with the admirable purpose of presenting a detailed summary of life and events in Reims during the bombardment, giving the names of persons killed or wounded, and the locality of buildings injured. The censor speedily fell afoul of this useful summary: names of persons and buildings were stricken out, as well as other details, and finally the diary came to a temporary end with Part 41.

I must mention also the "Journal d'un Rémois" by M. Henri Jadart, which appeared in "Les Champs de Bataille, Collection du Tour de France, Les Cités Meurtries", edited by M. Octave Beauchamp. M. Jadart is librarian and curator of the Museum of the City of Reims, and has kept in close touch with everything relating to his city. His "Bibliographie Rémoise", read before the Academy of Reims, of which he is the Secretary-General, at a meeting in Paris in June, 1916, is a useful record of the extensive literature produced by the bombardment. The series "Les Cités Meurtries" also includes "Reims sous les obus en 1915" by Mlle. Alice Martin, carrying the story into that year. Mention should also be made of the publication "Reims et la Marne. Almanach de la Guerre, 1914-1915", published in Paris by M. Jules Matot. This book contains no calendar of the bombardment, but a daily summary of general events at Reims, and therefore it is more particularly of local interest. The article "Trois Semaines à Reims" by General Dubois, published in "La Revue" for Oct.-Nov., 1914, contains some useful notes on the first weeks of the bombardment. Just as my chronology had been completed I obtained the new book by M. Jules Poirier "Reims (1 Août—31 Décembre, 1914)", giving a survey of the early events of the war as they related to Reims, and summarizing the daily events in diary form. It has given me some additional facts on the first five months of the bombardment. "Sous les Bombes" by Mlle. Clotilde Jehanne Remy, of which two parts have appeared, is a personal diary of life in Reims during the bombardment.

Although I have been obliged to place complete dependence on printed records, it should be pointed out that there is often a wide divergence between them. The statements printed in the two Reims newspapers do not always agree for the same day, and "Le Petit Rémois", in endeavouring to present a fair and just account, has more than once printed the divergent reports, and clarified the matter by adding its own summary, which often differed from the other two! I fancy, however, that many of these differences are apparent only, and are perhaps not so striking as they first appear.

It has seemed desirable to give the details of the bombardment as far as the local reports permit. That is to say, the hours of the bombardment, the number of shells, the number of persons killed or wounded. The hours of the bombardment are an interesting index to the agitated daily life at Reims. The number of shells is also of interest as indicating the possible intensity of the attack. But as ammunition of all kinds and sizes, huge and small shells, shrapnel, incendiary and asphyxiating bombs and many other kinds of projectiles have been used in the siege, a mere statement of number of shells hardly gives a proper index to the horror of any one bombardment. But the shell records as to kind are highly incomplete in the published reports, and it has not seemed worth while to make an effort to indicate them. In the dreadful days of March, April, May and June, 1917, when the fall of shells was colossal, even the newspapers gave up attempts at numbering them, and it is probable the actual totals will never be known. The number of persons killed and wounded help also to show the severity of the bombardments, and have no other purpose in this survey. I can scarcely hope that my records of these items approach completeness, and they have been omitted from April, May and June, 1917. The number of persons killed or wounded are, for the most part, those of the civilian population of Reims.

In addition to bombardment from guns Reims has suffered from the German aviators. I have designated these birds of prey as "Taube", as an economical form of expression. Every considerable bombardment was preceded by these visitors. Nearly every day one or more of them appeared above Reims, and they seem to have been looked upon as so much matter of course that I suspect their presence was often unnoted in the reports. Whenever possible they were eagerly welcomed by the guns of Reims, and hence it followed that, not only was the city subject to the bombardment of the enemy, but on several occasions injury was done in it by antiaerial shells falling back.

A mere glance at the daily records shows that, until March, 1917, no definite purpose was behind this bombardment. It was continued for two years and a half for no other purpose than to annoy the French. Else why these daily bombardments of a few shells only, these days of calm or of little doing, these spurts of agony, bringing sudden death or useless destruction, only to be followed by lapses into silence? Had the destruction of Reims been seriously undertaken it might, I suppose, have been accomplished long since. But it pleased the enemy to irritate rather