Under the pretext that they did not want to leave anything to the Germans, the soldiers stormed the state stores and turned them over to plunder; a certain number went to the reserves of wine and brandy. In the work of the German General Staff we find the following passage: “In the afternoon of the 16th, the prisoner garrison, approximately 4,800 men strong, left by the Porte de Reims, drunk for the most part and in quite a mess.”
