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

AFTER A BATTLE.

A correspondent of the Manchater Guardiansaye

d' We turn iii to the right and are soon on the crown of
the hill, and hae, 0 God ! what a sickening sight await, us.
There in hoot ice clean even hie of dead Frenchmen, three
deep tail out with military runt any As the) stood in
line so (try fell, almost all shot throneh tte tir ad Most
of them have fallen forward on their faces, their arms ex-
tended, some with Voir Miters on the trigger they never
had him to pull. .1 me few have reeled ha ,k wards, and
then there is a smashed and bettered face tinned up to
Heaven. If the blood of Abel cried to Heaven for vengeance
these men's blood anneals also, and that battered image ,e 1
his Maker is their offering priest. There is another these
whose face ie half shot away. Surely it 'mot he faecy—buf
no, it moves, and then it flashes to me mind that tn,re
may still be some living here, a:.d we have a duty to do 1W
which • neutral may engage, allt we go up to him. /et;
poor fellow, lie still lives, thought it would almost it seems,
be the greater mercy to end that life of pain at tince than
attempt to save the battered remains of life he, should he
live, will have to carry about with him. But at he lives
something must be done. Toe geeStioo is, what? Not a
French soldier is near, not • French doctor, not one of that
multitudinous and polyglot usenoblage who sport their
white ' Itraasards' with so much c implacancy in Meta. There
Is no help for it but to go right up to the Prussians there
and ask in God's name tor their help for • wounded enemy.
This is done, and with truest noble-hearteduess • party of
their own men anal a cart are sent off with us for any
wounded we may And. Here and there we pick up another
still breathing soldier and coneign him to the kindly hands
of those who a few flour. ago were just as anxious to kill
him as they are willing now to save. This Is the pie-i. if
the hottest cart of the tight, and the dead he h.ckly around.
Scarcely, however, do wearer Preston Tory have already
removed them. not their wouudeo have been cared for some
hours ago, entire kindly-he tried officer to whom we addressed
curselves informs us. NVe wander still on, sesrchleg indeed
for the living amongst the dead. I am started here by my
French eminentin m king [emission to bear away hem the
field • Prussian helmet aa a tr..phy. What an extraordinary
people they are ! And the Pru-sian office evidently thinks
so too, and Rives us peonlasioe to carry away what we will,
a permission which forces a declaration of my own neutrality
frmi me. and a declaration that I want no dead men's
clothes. The way in which my French compael in hicks at
me is evkleidly a silent trmslatlon of my own wandering re-
e Winn of what an extraordmary people they are—so did.,
ently do we look at trainee. There lies a etimstur de Vin-
cennes. Surely he meet he living, his colour Is to pool nor
can he be deeply WoUTelf d Why, this, hire so still? Hear-
ing French voices near him he looks bp, pretending to awake
cut of sleep. For about sixteen hours he has lain here 5.
mortal f onk—no other word will do--and the wretched
coward appeals tons to deliver him from the hands of the
Prussians. I am sorely tempted to call them up and siva
the wretched animal into their custody; but then they
would have to keep him, and h. certainly is not worth his
keep, so the counsels of my French friend prevail, anal we
p.ck the creature up. He is so stiff from his seeming death
that he can tweeds stand. We mall a couple ot peasants,
and lie leans on them as thouath s,rionsly wounded: and
thus we lead him away. Now come down upon us about •
dogoi dram-ems, anti a parley ensues as to what we are doing
with that ...Idler. My French fiend eUeeeede hi perimading
the German ti let him go, and with • smile he does so,
reading at mce the teeth of the question, arid probably
thinking such a sillier more detrimental than advaritagems
to the arms of France Once the creature Is to a place of
safety he is dismissed with kicks arid curses, and lets to thud
his own way back to Mete. A anlta do farmer steps up
and tells us there are acme wounded up by the wood yonder;
so norms the fields we go, and here we find a heap of dead,
and rammed them three poor soldiers who have lain there
since about three ceolock 5 esterdsy unable to move, without
a particle of food, or, above all, without a drop of water.
One id us goes hack to horny to seek some help, whilt the
other stays mil tries to give some relief to the crampes and
stlffenintr limes, or at any rate a few kindly words of hope
and modaregumnt Au hour's waiting brings a lot g emu-
try cart with I hearty of straw in it, and we lift the poor
fellows into the shaky vehicle, and jolt them over the fields
as gently as priest' 10, yet still with horrible asto.iy to their
crushed and bleeding limbs. At lad we reach Ore road, and
progress is somewnat easier, praising on our way another
p.r fellow whim it would be dangerous to lift run Inch •
cart or ours. He needs those beauttul stretchers which are
so scientifically constructed, but ahieh are all where the
doctors are, in Men, truism nothing. Net cart we do any-
thug fir him now, poor fellow. Ile would probably die on
the road, and meanwhile would Mune an tuereascd agony to
those we are already trausporting.•