The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-11-08 00:00:00

A SKETCH FROM THE TRIAL OF
MARSHAL BAZ AINE.

A French correspondent of TA* Timm, writing under date
V.rs.ltboo, Oct. al. sends a most Interesting letter mootuatlng
the proceedings of the trial of Marshal Hamlin* born which
we make the tollowlng extracts
The remark hoe often been made in France, "Modest
courage, unostentatious patriotiam, natural obedience
to duty, must be sought for in the middle class of the
French people—in that claw which lies half-way
between the workman who blindly obeys the
orders of • secret society and the rentier who
constantly floating between two opinions." In
my last letter we saw the Commissariat march past
Fine gentlemen they were, covered with gold braid,
wearing reiedalx stars, and dazzling uniforms, and
holding high their haughty heads. They all ad-
vanced to the bar with assurance and dignity, like men
convinced of their indispensable importsoce. If the
army suffered from hunger and cold, if abundant food
did not sustain the soldiers' eel:wage, it was certainly
not their fault. If we were to calculate the enormous
quantity of stores which each of these great men ac-
cumulated on the battle-fields, in deptits, and along the
line of road the army waa to follow, we should be ter-
rified by the grand tote', and should really understand
that • French soldier, fed by the French Commiaaariat,
is one of those happy moitale whose embonpoint and
florid compl•ixion might serve aa a prospectus and ad-
vertisement too bathing place. How it happened that
the soldiers often remained without bread and ammu-
nition, that hunger and the enemy's grape-shot both
found them defenoeleas—that is, of course, what
the Commissariat cannot explain '
The witnesses who succeed the braided gentlemen
of the Commiraariat in no way resemblp them. They
are mere foreirt keeper', rule, ignorant men, who ad-
vance with awkward gait to the bar, harem unoonacions
of their heroism, who go etraight to duty without turn-
iog to the right or to the left, who take no heed of the
pits and precipices which border and surmount their
path Four of them appear, llicieelabrino, Timabre,
Broody, and Gaillemin. When MacMahon, without
news of Baraine, wanta to send him despatches,
when it Is necessary to advance through • country
scoured by the enemy's troops, they are called and
asked whether they will take charge of the laconic
messages which may save an army, and without fur-
ther reflection they reply, as Guillemin did, "MI
right ! "and pet tut with the despatch, sometimes rolled
up like a &gazette ready for amoking, sometimes in a
tube of caoutchouc ready for swallowing, or their way
to Metz, through the German lines, and accomplish
their mission.

The reader of The Tina will, perhaps, remember a
room.' action with BAR...Me which appeared last March.
In that conversation the Marshal said that he had not
men Soalabrino, one of the four. In court, Scalabrino
proves that he saw the Marsha and gave him the des-
patch ; that he had all the trouble in the world to get
perm'ssion to sleep in a stable, and that after having
waited in vain for an answer he returned to Verdun
without it through a thousand difficulties and dangers.
ThP foil iwing deposition of Braidy will give an idea
of the heroic simplicity of these obscure emissariee

• On the morning of the 17th the inspector took me to
General GrPrin, liammander or 'Verdun, who asked me if I
would take • despatch to 11-ts for Marshal Bassin, I
accepted the miaston I reached Bellevue on the leth
there a detachment of Owes.. told me where Marshal
headquarten were. Nest day at noon I was re-
ceived by him. The same day at Bye, Marshal Bassin' ordered
me to return to Verdnn with an answer. I left Metz on
the morning of the 20th. I had scarcely got beyond the
French lines when a Prussian patrol saw me and took me
mitioner. After haring questioned and marched me, the
Prussians took me to. farm occupied by them, and kid me
I should he shot sent day. They kept me • prisoner two
days, an.) then let me gr. Havlng sucieeded In conceadur
in the solo of my shoe the despatu I had in charge, I WI nt
on my way, and on the 22ad I was bre. k martin at Val cue."

Ifere, again, is the beginning of Guillemin's de-
position :

_
0 tr., idth of Aucu,t my Inn-we:or re.'d to me • r e
C ,n.ni' 'ivy of Mort s want. a forester to go to (Ito;' g•
yo. I answered. All rt.ht."l-hat day at two o'clock the
CommltttrY Save me a despatch, and toll in, I should nod
the army somewhere about Confline. I found nothing at
Cords., and I went on to Metz, where I arrived on the
2`th. Thee I gave my despatch to the Marshal, who read

t thus that these enfant perdue of obscurer:mirage
march without brag or boast towards the goal pointed
out to the by the patriotic desire of their chiefs.
Thu. did Scalabrino, thus Twaabre, thus Braidy, thua
Guillemin. _

And how the hearers approved the manly and
simple language of the Due d'Aumale, thanking
them for their devotedness in the name of the
Council I "That devotedness which," the Duke
said, "we. all the more touching because they
seemed to be ignorant of it." But what should
have been seen by the side of the Prince's emotion
and the spectators' applause, was the embarrassed
look with which these intrepid meesengers, whom
the enemy's menacing patella failed to intimidate,
withdrew from the bar. That was a consoling eight.
It proved that many virtues have not yet disappeared
from the soil of France; it proved that there still @slats
that middle race of heroes who go obscurely to death
in days of riot to defend social order, or who beat the
charge with their left arm when a cannon ball has
carried away their right.

When we reflect on the simplicity with which the
poor woodmen had sought to enter Metz, to c
truth and hope to the besieged city, and when :vrirtK
that simplicity we contrast the laissez oiler, the absence
of effort, the want of enthusiasm of the Colonel, we
feel indeed that patriotism is one of those primeval
virtues which are born with a man and which neither
education nor modal position can either give or develope.
Fortunately, next day's sitting bring us back again
by a happy contrast to those unadorned struggles in
which men without education rise above the human
though in that same sitting, in the midst of
those men of honour we meet with a witness whose std.
tude fills the spectators with astonishment and indig-
nation. In the first place we have the witness Lagoon,.
He is of the middle size, with a brood forehead, an
intelligent eye, and energetic demeanour. Asked to
take a despatch from MacMahon, an explicit, urgent
despatch, indicating the Marshal's march to the North,
off he starta, without reflecting that he has no money
In his pocket, and is obliged to borrow some at the very
outset of his journey. ',wane possesses not only
courage, but intelligence, and • great deal of it.
The way in which he observes the country as he goes
along is truly admirable, He gives a better account
of the situation, strength, and plans of the enemy
than many a French Staff officer could do; and
when, on his return, he is questioned, his answers are
such as Generals are happy to take into account.
Lagosse had arrived at lhionville. There he saw Cu-
lone! Turnier, who was in command, This colonel,
whom we shall have up by and by, adviane—nar,
almost orders—him not to continue his j ourney. He
takes hi. despatch from him and says he will give it
to "sure men who know the language of the noun-
try." Lagoese leaves the despatch with him, and Pim-
ply returns through a housand dangers to Machish
He was not the only one who hail received • simi-
liar misslon. Others had gone en the same errant
and succeeded in penetrating to the Marshal's head-
quarters. The next witness is one of them ; his name
is hlarohall. I ehonld like that name to Si itself in the
memory of thoee who read it. For me Max shall is truly
a strange, heroic type—a type of that instinctive
heroism which man brings into the world with him,
and which urges him to deeds of daring as thirst urges
him to the woodland spring. Marchall's look justifies
what I say. He is pale, has a low forehead, a
broad nose, a stiff moustache, lank hair; he comes
heavily forward, he speaks elowly, and what he says
los-e enormously by being related by him. But while
you listen to him tears come Into your eyes; you cannot
take your eyea off him. He is a hero. When asked if
he will go on the dangerous errand, Marchall says," All
righ.," and away he goes. He is arrested, set at liberty,
arrested again, but nothing discourages him. When
exhausted, harassed, dying of hunger and thirst., hawks
to he taken into a h ouse and lodged, and when he is roughly
spurned from toe inhoepitable door, Marchall again
says" All right," and goes hia way. His face den otes euch
complete absenco of cunning that the Germans
sometimes hesitate about questioning him. He
innocently asks them for a pas/. When asked if he
is a Frenchman. "Yes," he answers. "Why,
then, you can have no pass from us; we are Gen-
mine." "If you were French I should have no
need to is,k you for one," he replies with eimplcity,
and that answer disarms the rigour o the
enemy's soldiers. By dint of courage, resispation,
and tenacity, he at last geta through the enemy's
lines, enters Metz, sees Borgne, gives him his
despatch, tells him he will wait for the answer, and
retires. You should hear him relate his sad Odyssey
after he has given up his despatch. He can find
lodgings nowhere. This hero, without knowing it,
whom the desire of reaching Metz had inepired with •
'innilred different shifts, can pereuade no one to give
him a placl to lie down in. People look at him in
amazsruent when he asks for hospitality in the city he
has come to save at the ri.k of his own life; and,
finally, he stretches his weary limbs in a cow•hel.
What shall be said of those who thus reoeive the
patriotic messenger

In the first seven months of the financial year the
Exchequer receipts amounted to £40,684,776, as compared
wRh £40.133,187 In the corresponang partied of the previous
Year. The exoenditure has been £47,ifee 219. On Bawdy
lest the balanoe to the B eon of England eru £1,708,981.

There was • large assembly of clergy of the dioceses
of London. Winchester, and Rochester at At Paul's 013 Tues-
day morning. when addreeses were delivered by the bishop
of the three mei respecting the missionary soterPrist iTO.
reed to be undertaken by ibis aexl per