The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-07-30 00:00:00

WAR DECLARED BETWEEN FRANCE
AND PRUSSIA
On St Swithin's Day, July 15, 1870.
Upon St. Swithin's day,
France and Prussia stripped for fray,
While Europe gavot in horror and In dread:
If the ahas their rain did pour,
In those hours tsventy.tour,
Query, ought not that rain to have been rod?
—Punch.

INSIDE THE FORTRESS OF ME TZ.

;By the Correspondent of the Daily News.)

- .
I bad Men struck by the numerous and important works
being constructed on all sides of Metz on my first arrival,
and determined to visit them and Inspect them narrowly if
by any poAsilile means I could obtain an entrance. At the
the &del in Metz they assured me at once that it was quite
impossible for any civilian to enter the new forts they
moult, of course, be delighted to supply me with a carriage
to go In. and we should enj.-iy alter view; but see the forts!
pas possible. "Why I never saw them myself," said mine
neat. knit we thought it possible there were probably a good
many other things our landlord had never seen, so oil we
started. _

We passed one of the three camps now formed round Metz
on our way directly we hat cleared an innumerable multi-
tude of gates, glade, portcullises, and drawbridges. I counted
four of these last, and my friend, the English officer above-
mentioned, says I missed one, and that there were five in all.
Soon after we had quitted the town and passed the camp of
Ban-St. Martin, we got among the vineyards, the vines run-
ning right down to the edge of the road, 111 many cases with-
out even a ditch to protect the grapes from the gaininx of
Metz. After about half an hour's drive our carriage was
brought to a standstill by a long train of artillery
waggons, whose drivers had stopped to breathe
their horses in front of us, and now our cock,
began to show signs of fear. Ile wanted to st op,
laying he could not get past the waggons, but lust as he was
speaking they started off, and he consented to go on again.
About a quarter of a mile on he came to another stop, and
this time he refused to he comforted, expressing lively fears
of the sentinel in sight at the fort, about a quarter of a mile
higher up making use of his Chaasepot if we went a yard
farther There was nothing for it but to get out and walk :
so we trudged up the steep and dusty roml to the entrance
of the fort. The sentinel received us very politely, and
bowed no signs of making any hostile use of his musket.
'He told us we must come with him to the guard-room.
and speak to the "sergeant." The sergeant referred
us to the captain commanding, and we sat down to wait for
that personage in his bureau in one of the casemate..
Getting tired of waiting, we asked leave to go ant and seek
the captain, and soon met him riding back from a sister
. fort hard by. When he heard what we wanted he demurred
' a little at first, but, after having ilialmned our passports and
! eatistied himself that they were en ,Ogle. he not only decided
to let us visit the fort, but told one of the lieutenants on
duty to accompany us 1,11 do the honours. We were
accordingly shown everywhere and everything by
a most intellhent young officer, who not only answered all
our imestions, hut spontaneously volunteered Information
which he thought might interest Us. The fort, he told ns,
would he defensible in 24 hours ; the cannon, en n number,
were even then being got into position • and the ditches, to
yards deep and as nial.y wide, Isere finished for purposes of
defence, as too were the casemates and bombproof barracks
Fort St. Quentin, or perhaps I ought to' any Forts St.
Quenii,i, for there are two, stand on the summit of a high
hill which over ooks for miles the broad valley of the N louse,
In which Mete stand. Their gulls would play with tre-
mendoes effect on any enemy advancing up the valley to
attack the town at it. Net, and a beaten or demoralised army
might tied ample shelter in the valley which we had just
erased, guarded on one side by the guns of the town, and on
the other by the fort we were tr.
Our friend the lieutenant complained terribly of the dilli
culty of getting his men to work on the fort. " They are at
thinking sad talking of nothing but fighting, coyer row, and
every now and then put down their pickaxes and shovels to
listen to a comrade who has come up fioni Metz with some
absurd story of a great battle having begun. However, we
shall be utf to the frontier in eight days," he added I stein d
him if he had seen guns 111 muted on the Moncrieff
system, hut he had never even heard of It. Nor
did he know what a Spencer or a Henry repeater
was. Le fusille It aFguille, or Prussian needle-gun, was all
he seemed to care about. How long did he think the war
would last? " About two months, not longer. The Prue-
Hans, even if victorious, cannot keep their armies lathe field
for more than three months at a time, for as by their system
they take all men, of all ranks and occupations alike, to
fight, they exhaust themselves terribly in a very short
time, all commerce and budnesa being at a complete
standstill whilst the war lasts." This, of course, is
an opinion that mart be taken for what it is worth.
He told US how two Prussians had been taken In the forts
on the opposite side the valley. One of them, • captain of
engineers, Was recognised by a Prussian workman employed
on the earthworks Thin man told his comrades that there
was Captain von walking on the bastion; the guard was
' turned out, and the captaM was ern ated . 10,000 francs were
Ifound on hint, and he at once owned who he was. Ile is
now meditating on the errors of his ways In the military pri-
son In Met. citadel.
.. .. . .. _ . . ..

I about' not omit to mention that the fact of these same
fortifications having been commenced some months ago Is A
clear proof, if pro f were needed, of how the Freoeh had
long ago determined to be prepared for an offensive war on
the first opportunity. For the new forts are not merely des-
tined to (Wend Metz, the town is msgniflnn.tly fortified
as It is No, they are intended to protect a vast encampment
as at the present moment, or to give shelter and breathing-
time to a beaten army.