The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-30 00:00:00

THE SIEGE OF PARIS.

From Versailles, January 23, the special correspondent
of the Daily Hews at the Crown Prince of Prussia's head-
quarters writes :--There have been many scraps of addi-
tional news, in regard to last Thursday's sortie, coming in
to throw light upon the scope and result of the
attempt from Mont Val4rien. We have found
that the French loss was heavier than was at first
supposed, and there is reason to believe that,
desperate as their chance of success must have appeared,
the officers who led the sortie were bent upon striking
a blow at the German headquarters. General Trochu
is said to have been present himself, and risked his life
freely to encourage the men. All the means of attack
which modern science supplies, and which are
Possessed by the French in Paris, were called
into requisition. The gunboats on the Seine
steamed boldly into action, and kept up a galling fire
against the German right, which was established in the
park of St. Cloud. The railway mitrailleuse batteries
came out on the St. Germain line under the pro-
tection of Mont Valerein, and attacked such of
the besieging troops as it seemed likely that
they could reach, though I do not think they were able
to keep up more than a distant fire upon the Prussian
left. Field artillery and great guns in position were freely
used to support the sortie, the heavier pieces sending up
their shells from the works near Billancourt and Bou-
logne. It was altogether a well-supported attempt to
make such progress in the first rush of the affair as
would pave the way for an advance upon Versailles ; and
at Montretout, where the French really succeeded in gain-
ing ground, there seemed to be a plan of permanently
occupying the spot so long debated between besiegers and
besieged. Throughout the day the French held Mon-
tretout, and they penetrated some little distance on the
German side of the work. Even when the gallant von
Strautz, with his Jaegers, supported by Infantry of the
Line, had recaptured the bone of contention on the
hill top, and thrown back the French with loss upon
Suresnes, there remained that body of three or
four hundred Mobiles, of which I have already told you,
concealed in the village of St. - Cloud, cut off, as would
appear, by the failure of their friends to support them ;
and these Mobiles were taken by the indefatigable Prus-
sian Jaegers long after the whole matter of the sortie was
thought to have been laid to rest. I have heard that
the French were considered to have fought better than
usual for the first part of their attack, as though they had
nerved themselves up to strike a decided blow; but in the
afternoon of Thursday, when I had a good opportunity
of seeing for myself what occurred, the most that
could be said was that they stood their ground,
and kept up a brisk fire, but with faint symptoms
of pressing forward, and with seemingly no hope of
being able to make their way into the German lines.
The practice of the French field-artillery is said to have
been magnificent at one or two points, and that of the
German field-batteries was quite up to its usual mark,
as I can vouch from what I saw ; but neither on one side
side not the other was the small-arm fire so deadly as
might have been expected from the persistent way in
which it was sustained. The French were most exposed,
and lost many more men than their opponents, perhaps
four or five times as many ; but the great loss to
besiegers and besieged alike was caused by artillery fire.