DOUAI

or DOUAY, town, dep. Nord, France (50° 23’ N., 3° 3’ E.), on riv. Scarpe, 17 m. S. of Lille; principal buildings, church of Notre Dame, 12th to 14th cent., and H6tel de Ville, partly 15th cent.; an Eng. trans. of the O.T. published by the Eng. Benedictine Coll. (founded 1568, closed 1903), along with the N.T. version published at Reims in 1582, known as the Douay Bible, is still the standard R.C. Eng. version. The town has sustained several sieges; finally ceded to France by Treaty of Utrecht, 1713; before the World War it was an important industrial center, with iron and engineering works, ammunition factories, besides sugar refineries, breweries, wool, paper, and leather factories and gla works. Pop., town, 23,000; comm., 36,000. In Aug. 1914 the tide of Ger. invasion swept past Douai, which after the battle of the Marne became an object of attack by both sides, as it was an important center of communications; held for a week by Fr. Territorials; Germans after their entry, Sept. 28, pillaged and burned; chAteau was for a time headquarters of army group of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria; town frequently visited by Kaiser; entered by British, Oct. 17, 1918, Germans committing wanton destruction before evacuation; the treasures stolen from the museum and churches were recovered in a railway van near Charleroi.