"Ending War: Revisiting the Aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars " Topic

"In July 1815, the Parisian banker Jacques Fournel wrote to his friend Pierre Vitet in Rouen about the first three days of the second allied occupation of France, which he described as:

"less courteous than last year…. The outskirts of Paris are destroyed…. Our friend R's [probably Fournel's partner Vital Roux] house was sacked, all the mirrors, doors, windows and woodwork smashed and 250 horses are roaming around the garden. [R]'s sister took refuge in the church along with a few other inhabitants of the area. Even the temple of God was not respected and she was forced to hide
for three days in the bell tower. The sacred vessels, statues of saints and the virgin, all became victims of an enraged soldiery. This was a particularly ironic scene considering that the troops had been sent to place a very Christian king back on his throne. Peasant houses were not saved any more than the bourgeois ones. … Who could ever repair such disasters and erase the memories that they will leave behind?…"
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