Just then we heard an extraordinary rushing noise in the air, like steam
being let off from a railway engine. A terrific bang ensued, and then a
flare. It was an incendiary bomb and was just outside the Hospital
radius. I was glad to be in the open, one felt it would be better to be
killed outside than indoors. If the noise was bad before, it now became
deafening. Pierre suggested the _cave_, a murky cellar by the gate, but
it seemed safer to stay where we were, leaning in the shadow against the
walls of Notre Dame. Very foolish, I grant you, but early in 1915 the
dangers of falling shrapnel, etc., were not so well known. These events
happened in a few seconds. Suddenly Pierre pointed skywards. "He is
there, up high," he cried excitedly. I looked, but a blinding light
seemed to fill all space, the yard was lit up and I remember wondering
if the people in the Zepp. would see us in our white overalls. The
rushing sound was directly over our heads; there was a crash, the very
walls against which we were leaning rocked, and to show what one's mind
does at those moments, I remember thinking that when the Cathedral
toppled over it would just fit nicely into the Hospital square.
Instinctively I put my head down sheltering it as best I could with my
arms, while bricks, mortar, and slates rained on, and all around, us.
There was a heavy thud just in front of us, and when the dust had
cleared away I saw it was a coping from the Cathedral, 2 feet by 4!
Notre Dame had remained standing, but the bomb had completely smashed in
the roof of the chapel, against the walls of which we were leaning! It
was only due to their extreme thickness that we were saved, and also to
the fact that we were under the protection of the wall. Had we been
further out the coping would assuredly have landed on us or else we
should have been hit by the shrapnel contained in the bombs, for the
wall opposite was pitted with it. The dust was suffocating, and I heard
Pierre saying, "Come away, Mademoiselle." Though it takes so long to
describe, only a few minutes had elapsed since leaving to cross the