Note 137 — Chapter LVIII
Reading edition
"The bridges and public buildings were a prey to the flames. The churches, in particular, poured out torrents of fire and smoke. The domes, the spires, and the multitude of small towers which arose above the conflagration, added to the effect of the picture, and produced these ill-defined emotions which are only to be found on the field of battle. We entered the place. It was half-consumed, of a barbarous appearance, encumbered with the bodies of the dead and wounded, which the flames had already reached. The spectacle was frightful. What a train is that of glory!"—Mémoires de Rapp, p. 190.
"The army entered within the walls; it traversed the reeking and bloodstained ruins with its accustomed order, pomp, and martial music, and having no other witness of its glory but itself;—a show without spectators, an almost fruitless victory, a melancholy glory, of which the smoke that surrounded us and seemed to be our only conquest, was but too faithful an emblem."—Ségur, tom. i., p. 237.