The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-30 00:00:00

WAR :NOTES.

PARTINGS. -- A letter from Frankfort in the
Standard says :—We were told by some officers of a sad
accident which had occurred at the Potsdam station that
morning. As a body of troops were leaving, their wives
clinging to them making their final adieu. Even
after the train was in motion they still held to their
hands, and one poor woman, still holding on, was
pulled off her feet, and killed before her husband's
ayes. At a train which had left Berlin a few ho urs
before our own, a similar catastrophe had been prevented
by the ingenuity of the station-master. The women
clung so t) their husbands that it was impossible
for the train to move on. In vain the officers
and officials implored them to move, and so
great was the excitement that the driver of the
engine absolutely refused to turn on steam, saying that
he would not be the cause of so great loss of life. At
last the station-master had three empty carriages added
to the rear of the train, and told the poor women that the
troops must move on in order that another train
might come up to the platform, but that if they would
take their places they might go on to the next
station, and there take the last farewell of their husband.
The women crowded into the carriages, and when they
had taken their places, the couplings were quietly un-
sastened, and the troop train moved out of the station
leaving the carriages with the wives standing at the
platform.

A. FRENCH REGINIENT.—But the Lancers pass,
and to them succeeds a regiment which is better fitted
for all the duties that cavalry is still competent to do—
of foraging, of outpost, and of pursuit—than any
regiment I have ever seen in the service of France,
from the " heavies," with their obsolete cuirasses
and their big plunging cattle, to the weak-looking
corps of light horsemen, who have neither arms
for sabres to their bodies nor animals for the weight
they carry under them. Light men they may, but they
are not by any means lightly equipped. But this regi-
ment which advances is a model of its kind, the
best mounted, the picked warriors of his Imperial
Majesty Napoleon 111., the Chasseurs of the
Guard. The horses are all, or nearly all, grey
Arabs, light-iimbed, sinewy stallions, with waving
manes and long bushy tails. They are small—but how
symmetric and powerful, how clean in the pasterns, and
what finely-chisselled heads ? There is a lurking devil in
the small fiery eyes of these steeds of the desert, sure sign
they are game, and will never give in until they absolutely
drop from fatigue. The men who ride them are
light and prettily uniformed in dolmans of light
green, with five ranges of large buttons, and wear the
talpack with scarlet pompon in front, a head-gear some•
thing similar to our hussar-busbys. The onlp fault to be
found with the Chasseurs is one not singular to them—
their horses are too heavily laden, and almost disappear
under their burden of tent, cloak, pack, cooking utensils,
and net of hay, like a light porter under a load of band-
boxes.—Slandard Letter from Metz.
THE PRUSSIAN FORCE.—I am inclined to the
belief, says a correspondent of the Telegraph, writing from
Frankfort, that the usual prelude to a great engagement
will be omitted in the commencement of the present war,
and that the first serious trial of strength between the
Prussian and French forces will be a battle on a gigantic
scale, in which from six to seven hundred thousand men
will be engaged. By the end of this week Prussia will
have a million of men under arms, counting the armies of
both Confederations. The grand movement of troops
commenced yesterday morning, and by Friday more than
six hundred thousand men will have passed through this
city alone. Trains are arriving every quarter of an hour
filled with troops, which are, after partaking of the
refreshments offered them by a committee of
the citizens, at once marched to another sta-
tion, and despatched to their respective destinations.
The Rhine fortresses are completely garri.,•oned, muni-
tioned, and provisisned. The outer line of defensive
works on the heights round Mayence was finished and
armed yesterday. I must not tell you the number or size
of the guns mounted. Suffice it to say that Mayence is
now twice as. formidable as it was ten days ago. The
charming promenades of the pretty and industrious little
town have suffered cruelly ; all their fine trees have been
cut down, and it will be many years ere they will recover
their gay and flourishing aspect. The mobilisation is
achieved ; and those who have failed to rally round their
standards may be counted as under a thousand in num-
ber,
_which is something marvellous, considering that
nearly 700,000 men have been called out.

A. Woolwich correspondent writes :—There has
been some excitement during the last day or two, owing
to the guns, waggons, and other stores in the grand
depot, where they have been housed since the Crimean
war, being brought out into the light, and a number of
men employed painting the woodwork, mending straps
and buckles, and hammering the wheels to test their
soundness. A number of men, about 300 in all, have
R
been taken on this week at the oyal Arsenal, and work-
ing overtime is resorted to in most of the manufacturing
departments. Recruiting sergeants, who have been long
complaining that there were no regiments " open," are
now again busy about the streets, and recruits are being
daily attested before the magistrates for the Royal Horse
Artillery and other corps. The garrison is full 0f
rumours, themost acceptable being that the Woolwich divi-
sion of Royal Marine Light Infantry, one of the finest regi-
ments in her Majesty's service, which was disbanded last
year, is to be recalled.