The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-09-03 00:00:00

MODERN KNIGHTS-ERRANT.
(From Wedoosday's Timed.)

We have been favoured with a copy of the following
letter from ore of a party of three members of thr
British Parliament who have joined the War Hospital
Corps at the scat of war :-
- - -

Luneville, France, Aug IS
Wears now In a duly recoguisol position, having each.
badge of white linen rout d the left arm, with a rod crow
woe,-n on It, whereby we become mendurs of the Inter.
national liJclety for Tending the Wounded. There an
number, on both eides, and tee cross is no ignited as
neutral hidge. proiectlng Its wearer Irons all (intentional
injury. The white flag with the red 'moss waves over every
bointal, and Is hung from a window In every hoisse when
sounded men lie. Tile badge is sore by every doctor
and every kind of person who, being a non-combater*
devotes hims ir herself (for there are
_Mate*
' ' "

of Charily and Florence .Ntioningalea here) to al-
Undid; to the wounded. They have had plenty
to do hitherto. The towns and villages round Woertn are,
and lone will be, tilled with the wounded from that mow
bloody tight. The order is directed on each sede by a Royal
Cononiashmer. The COMUASSOOPT with the army of rho
Crown niece is a Count von Corte, to whom the corn
mordant of Wiesembourg give us a letter of Introductiou
lisle always at the Crown Fr inee's fiend• Qearters or (more
properly)half a day's march behind, bat In constant comm.
Muslim with them. W e used our letter to him as a militias
pass, and followed him teem time to time till we eaughl
him at &strontium on Monday last. Indeed, having one,
reached the Neoshon lines at Wtssembourg we found me
difficulties as to permits:don to go on almost at an end. IV.
were on French soft. I,cal authority there was of course
none, and the PrUrelatie, being In hood spirits Wall tiler
victory and pressing eagerly forward, did not care to atop sr
even seriously tile.loll any one. Sly German stood us 1:
good geed. 1 not on capitally with the officers and met :
every one was and is cordial. Meanwhile, the French
people don't did Ise ne, not being Prussian.. Our reel dill.
only was not perint PlOO, but nieausol getting oil ant meals
of getting food. Both were iocreasingly Milieu" to us tie
further we advanced. Wannest and carrying our liii tp-
Iludis we found old not iocure ne all the respect sad
attention we claimed, aud indaed needed. Carriages them
are none. So on kl delay morning, when we met Cmot
Go lz, he recommended us to j an a volunteer party
with him who have donned the cross, and to we
dol. The party cortists of giant eight young ibln cf
nor own age. Of very good (mollies (so Count COM,
whole nit wil lout aristocratic prejudices, informed us), and
abut S.O young men, mostly fromin e Rhlue provinces, who
are the rank and tile. The latter receive some swell piF
from some of the Rhine towns. All are of course voi tortes rs.
The stamp on the badge and the card rovh.dising its are en-
title the nesrer to free q rafters just es if h 'eel" in the army.
The wito!sr or the little army is under a Baron von Witsleben,
a doe man, a Ii tie over nodil e age, cheerrul and coon
a thorough German, not imesking word of any other lan-
Waage. Cotint Garth on the other hand is a very cultivated
inamand r peaks Yogl,h per fectiy. lie w .50ie of the Heiden
Commissioners to E .glard at Prince.' Alice's we ding
lie 11" been very kin d. lie introduced mints h I eight men
I have mentioned, and we are now part of It little baud,
end aredv y q,,rined as oaten, and ur thsa character re-
celvsd our tenets on lussilay at Blamed", and last night
here, at linneville. I must Lot neglect to Include in our
hole army eight nuns and tore Protestant diaconersue (who
all seem to en-me ere," to be eireeted by a priest), alto an
Eligibrh lady, who lead,. live Sisters ot Charltylrom zbu-g.
ii B .varia. We three j•.ined, as I have sat:, at Satrelmurg
on the Monday. On roesday morning we Fat 010 from
Sarrebourg at 7 a.m., and reached Mamma iis the alter-
soon. Yesterday ( ) we left Blatuont at the same
hour, sod reached this place in the afternoon. We travel
In caravans, about fifteen vehmles, outdating of two moot-
buses Captured near Strubiug, and belone,isq to two lo dela
there. running to the statnin of the Chemill de Fey de l'Es.,
and thirteen peasant waggons of the usual Otranto shape V.
One omnibus is occupied by the priest aric hie nuns and
deaconesses, the other by the oiliest", I. ailing the titre e
Eirelt.hmen as we tire caned. One salmon het:copied by the
Ensilah lady aid Mr S stets of Charity; the rest of the poly
are dist:inward 1011OUr the waggon.. These :deo carry medical
stores nith supplies for sureelves—vin , aunirly emoted Wott-
phallm hams and hernia of Strasiiurg beer, Our Offi3Ord
, elou't stay on the omnibus, bat also scatter tkemselves aim"
on the waggon., Bar in von W deletion leaditg us, and the
Ireit helpindt to direct and keep blether the caravan. This is
no !WY task, for though We go, as yOU may ripple, eloWli
1 enough, we are constan.ly passed by trans of artilleiy
; or stores, or regiments of cavalry and itlantry. Thou-
. fonds spin thousands of these passe,. no I can
give you unklud of idea of the enormous 111• Of of troops.
larsillery, and stores that have poured into ranee aloog
. our route. It is mde like the migration of an aimed
peopll than the invasion of an armed fermi. I sheuld add
that all these vehicles. won the'r hove, Ind drivers, are
taken compulsorily by formal ' requisition.' Hence the fin-
possibility of our grater; any conveyarc-. The tr. o;" 're-
quire' everything. When the carriages, base done what
In Judged sufficient service, especially ii the hones are worn
our, they are sionmi"ed and allowed to rettom home. pro-
tected by • certificate from all further ' requisition. I should
add that the Prussians pay fairly for every tting, and gene-
rally I must say behave very reasonably to the people.

_remember, -

Discipline seems perfectT and the army, you rem-a...0r,
is composed of • very different class to that which alone
makes up our regiments. I walked the other day with two
private soldiere, both of whom had completed their
course of thiloimy at the leitiver,ity of Breslau Oar
censean having been brogght from Strasburg was here
dismissed, and we watt here to-day till the rail is made good,
hoping t ge on b. train to-morro .er to Nancy, where the
ere o P,lllOO llow In. It Is icily 12 miles from here Tnere
we wait our order, to the frel t, if, as all expect, there is a
great and filial battle Lear Chain, in a day or two. This
you sal know before this letter reaches you We know only
that Mond .y, Wednesday, and today fighting is going on
about Melt; that leavieg a gtrre.on there, the French army
as retiring rind c ementrating about Chalons. and that the
three German orioles are gathering together round the
French, and expect lithe French stand, to errant them by
overwhelming numbers, and march on Pail. All this yeu will
know much better than I can. We are almmt entirely ignorant
of what is goingon generally. We Immune seen a paper simee
we left Bretton, save then some person. c milog out &Strasburg
breeght us • local paper, telling us of tee change of Mmietry
at Paris. Various rumour., all equally unfounded in any
knowledge, amuse us, 'The Emperor has medleated," there
hilt been a Itemution In Paris,' 'The Empress and the
Prince Imperial are gone to Eaglande We know nothing:
the French population know less. I told you in my last that
we reached Wisaembourg on Wednesday, the 10th. On
Thursday, the 11th, we walkel to SuPe, and were kindly
taken in by a Dr. Gruel, of that place. He had • wounded
Turco in his house, a horrible barbarian. The Prussians
me very angry at the use of these eavages, of whom they
relate dreadful stories. Many of them are pure begroes.
Friday we welked to Woerth, and on to Froschweller.
The bettlis-field was deeply biter, They were bury-
ing the last of the dead hoellea. Fourteen thousand were
hurled, so we were officially informed. The slaughter moat
have been dreadful We could trace it by the heaps of
' knapsacks and helniets. The heavy rains since the pre-
ceding Saturday the dty of the bottle) had done much to
obliterate the traces of the fight, but there were more than
en mite. Great fresh Melinda of the slain—the church at
Frosch welter and some hemes nothing but ch treed ruins ;
all the houses riddled wi h bullets ; every house in Woerth
and Froschweiler and all the villages roused, filled with the
wounded, who olio constantly passed neon the read In carts
its they Were moved on to make room for others. 'the field
extends for about three nines. There are two para.lel
ridgee—Worrth Is In the valley between; Fmachweiler, the
French stronghold, on the tip of the west rider; thick
woods on the north of Imth ring,. Bat you will have read
an account of It, said I hare not I tell yen only what I
maw. We picked up letters In French atet 'moan Chick
made one choke to resd ; scraps of Bible verses scrawled;
family messages for poor fellows who never tort that Mkt
But the French were gone gild tee al ice them, and
the whole field was as silent aa death. We stood on the top
of the hill by Frioechweiler and looked over the field; the
buidecape was lovely in the afternoon sueshtne, and the hills
of he Palatinate looked mom glorious In the beckground.
We trudge 1001 to Hague.% ; hoping to lend Count You 60 to
there; but he wita gone on to Buchaweiler. Wu followed him
there. Ile was gene to SaVerne. To Saverne—he was gone to
Sorrelnurg. We step d at tlagnenau all Saturday, tut suc-
ceeded to getting a carriage fur Sunday morning. To think
of 'oh erving' the Sunday at such a time as Ellie Ls
impmeible. The churches are often occupied with the
Woillided or Kneelers, and everything seems suerended ex-
cept the continued movement of troops, trains, and artillery
In one illtectien, and waggons with the wounded in the
other. We drove to Buchsweiler and on to Severna, a
beautif I town. Our driver could not bs pirsniroded by
any breo to go further. He dreaded • • reemieitloue so
we walked on, • most lovely walk, along the valley or
Pass by which the rail slid canal and a b)•road cruse the
Veleta nimintalus ter Ft trrebcarg by Luteeleoure. Toe
ordinary road is by Phal bourg, to key to the Vosges.
this we just left to, "or Milt, walking meter it, but out
or sight. We could pleinly hear all the way the
cannon firing there. All tneaftemoon and evening it I 'sled;
our read, e -road, ear Tole, and deserted. We Lost our
say, end climbed up the hi; on our riget to a little village
close t Phaisbeure. The population were standing at the
doers listenna with interim intermit to the cannon. they had
But men the church of Phalebourg (which had taken fire) fall
to, but (miracle!; the Holy Virgin on the top remained
standing, held upfront Heaven. I don't conch for this because
didn't see it init I vouch for the villagers havieg declared
to us that they did see it By evening the towerof wlaltourg
was only a help of mine, yet the Governor would not sur-
render. I spoke next dey to an artillery officer who had
taken part In the bombatdin.nt. He was fullof admiration for
the Governor, whom he coded a brilliant man lie had only
the Gude Mobile from &mane and the villages round and
120 Tur.xis. lie was offered to march out with all the
'immure of war. Ile would net. To this hour I believe he
has not surtendered. The town is destroyed, but the fort
is almost impreenable, or could not be token without mole
loss of life as to make It under present circurnataeces too
dear a bargain. IS tide the Crown Prince had to draw all
hie troops, and supplies by that Hue it was of immense Im-
portance, hut now he Mu &deemed no far Into France he
has other Mies of commuuication, and the immense t ff act
of the victory at Wos rth growa upon turas we fled so large and
Import set a pert of France left open. Macelahon made no
attempt to defend the Vosges, which high efficein have told
us 3,000 meu could hive rendered lamamaele. Poolley the
Frets.'h debut at Sonobeilk the same days. Woerth necessi-
tated the immediate Con,entrallon of the French armies..
At any rate, the result is that the people of Mince
and ',Amine hate the Emperor and declare th-y
have been destroyed. Yet lucy don't like the Ger-
mans, whose language In Alsace they speak, and they
dread annexation. The result seemed curious enough to us as
we br, ve into Frew.° on the top of a captured °mite.. Our
intention is to am. it the great battle. If It comes it mud
he before you see this. The result could hardly be douht-
Int A revolution may happily prevent the fight, which
will be, indeed, on awful oho In any case, we three ex-
tect to bets Paris In • few days if all is well, and to re:urn
thence to England. Our services under the cross are ex-
pressly cor.fined to the finance. They will tort be without
rut, but will, at any rate, In some degree legitimize our Pre-
sence. Hospital work Ido not thick lam fit for, so when
the light is over I ahall come home. Every one am sit Is
quite impoinible the cempaign should last much longer.
Meanwhile we are comfortably quartered. Here I stroll
about acting as an interpreter for the soldiers. I have just
bought Le Blocus to re-read. P..or Paelabourg !"