"But appearances are specious. Many buildings whose facades are intact
are skeletons. Projectiles with high trajectory have fallen through the
roof and wrought destruction within. This is the case with a wing of the
Royal Palace. The windows are shattered, but the masonry has not
suffered. Within, however, all is devastated. Among the public buildings
the museum is a shapeless heap of debris, and the university is so much
knocked about that the plainest and cheapest remedy will be an entirely
new edifice.
"The higher part of the city has suffered most, with the exception,
perhaps, of the district around the station, which is completely
battered down. Rents in the pavement show that shells charged with very
high explosives were employed. One huge gulf I noticed at least twelve
feet deep by fifteen long and eight wide.
"There are many instances of the vagaries of these missiles of
destruction. I visited a house in which M. Nikovitz, who accompanied me
in my peregrinations, had occupied an apartment. There was nothing the
matter with the front, but a neat hole in the side marked the passage of
a projectile which had traversed the building and exploded in the
adjoining house, now a mound of brick-bats and matchwood. One half of a
large establishment in Prince Michael Street was completely wrecked, but
the other half was undamaged, and rolls of textile fabrics were in order
on their shelves or piled on counters.
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