The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-19 00:00:00

BISMARCK ON THE FRENCTI ARMY.

The Journal des Debuts publishes a letter from a corres-
pondent at Bouillon, Belgium, giving an account of an
interview with Bismarck. He says :—During the horrid
nightmare in which I have been living these nine days
past it was impossible to write a line. The least note of
this kind, if found in my pockets, would have brought me
into serious trouble with the Prussian Prevost. But one
does not forget horrors such as I have witnessed. This
evening I must content myself with the only informa-
tion I am permitted to give at present. M. de
Bismarck, I hasten to acknowledge, very willingly gave
me, on leaving Rethel, a safe conduct, which I should not
have ventured to ask from one of his supercilious sub(
nates. puring the twenty-four hours which he passed
at Rethel Bismarck conversed frequently with
his hosts and the friends of his hosts. Ho

attributed the reverses of the French army exclusively to
the incapacity of its leaders, which could, he said, only be
compared to that of the French ambassadors. Here he put
in a parenthesis. "Benedetti remained too long in Ger-
many. He did not even learn the German langttage. As
for me, when I went to France and Russia I
took professors of French and Russian, so as to
be able to judge of things for myself. Your generals,"
he continued, " did not know how to keep themselves au
courant of military progress. The soldier always fought
well, and especially at Gravelotte. At Sedan the charge
of two regiments of Chasseurs was admirable. Reduced
to a hundred men, they traversed the Prussian army.
The French army continally let itself be surprised, and
had no discipline. For instance, at Saarbruok soldiers
without arms and without officers were con-
stantly coming into the town and allowing
themselves to be taken. At = Beaumont (on the
29th Aug.) your army was agaid surprised, and what
isworse, by theartillery. Surprised again at Sedan, we drove
it after three battles in which we commanded the interior of
the town, to where it was accumulated and dominated by ust
IVlacMahon. was wounded in mounting his horse. There was
no longer a commander, no one to replace him. Capitu-
lation was spoken of. The commandant of the citadel
opposed it, and we began bombarding the town. The
Emperor then spoke of surrender, and asked me for an
interview through General Failly. I did not understand
it I thought that the Emperor had charged at
the head of his troops to get killed." When
the conversation turned upon the general opera-
tions, Bismarck expressed his astonishment at the
undulating march from Rheims to Sedan performed
by Marshal MacMahon. "I could understand," he said,
" a direct and rapid march by Montmedy. The Prussian
army would not have arrived, and could not have pene-
trated through the French army, which was from the first
divided into two. As for the army. of Marshal Bazaine,
that is blockaded in Metz by 150,000, men, who have im-
prisoned the town in a second circle of entrenchments.
There is no siege. Metz will be reduced by famine. The
inhabitants have tried to correspond by means of bottles
abandoned to the current of the Meuse, but we have
already laid nets to defeat this scheme." A lady having
asked him if the Prussians would burn Paris, he replied,
" Matters will not go so far. But as for the war in the
streets, that will only facilitate our entry into the town." "

THE DUKE OF FITZJAMES ON PRUSSIAN
SEVERITY.

The Duke of Fitz-James says he has followed the
heroic but unfortunate French army from Chalons, in dis-
charge of the duty allotted to him by the Societ6 Inter-
nationale de Secours, but that he does not wish to enter
on the long and painful recital of what he has seen. He
wishes only to utter a cry of indignation respecting what
passed at Bazeilles.

" Bazeilles is situated near the Meuse, eight kilometres
from Sedan. On the morning of the 31st August the
brave inhabitants of this village, seeing the enemy arrive,
arrayed themselves in their uniforms as national guards,
and assisted the army to defend itself against a Bavarian
Corps and against the Sheeler d'Erfurt Division of the
4th Corps of the Prussian Reserves. The French army
was repulsed. The enemy entered Bazeilles, and then
commenced those scenes of horror and excess which will
for ever disgrace those who committed them. The
Bavarians and the Prussians, in order to punish the in-
habitants for defending themselves, fl red the village. The
greater part of the National Guard were dead, the popu-
lation had taken refuge in the cellars, women,
children, all were burned. Out of two thou-
sand inhabitants scarcely three hundred remain
to tell that they saw the Bavarians drive back
whole families into the flames, and shoot the women who
tried to fly. I saw with my own eyes the smoking ruins
of this unfortunate village. There was not a house left
standing. A smell of burning hnman flesh overcame you.
I saw the bodies of the inhabitants calcined at their doors.
This, Mr. Editor, is the fact I wish to make known. War
bas its rigours, but it has also its regulations, based on the
laws of honour and of humanity. These laws, Bavarians and
Prussians who were at Bazeilles., you have outraged. You
have disgraced your victory. I appeal to the -world, to
history, which will judge you, and I ask you whether you

have the right to assert the principle that you have the
right to kill women and children in a village, whose
inhabitants, seeing you come, defended their hearths and
"their country. In any case the National Guard is a
regular -force, as regular as the 4th or sth Bon of your
Landwehr. Even in the name of your unprincipled system,
you had not the right to fire Bazeilles. You have killed
for the sake of killing ; you have behaved like savages and
not like soldiers. These are the facts which I think it my
duty to submit to the judgment of all.—Dug DE FITZ-
JAMES.

THE EMPEROR'S AIDES-DE-CAMP.
A few days since the Patric published a full account cs
the battle of Sedan, written by an officer who was at-
tached to the staff of General Wimpffen, in which the
Emperor appeared in a very unfavourable light. The
Inclependance Beige now publishes a reply to this narrative,
written by the aides de-camp of the dethroned Emperor,
who are with hint at Wilhelmshahe :
THE SIEGE OF PARIS.
The letter which appeared in the Petrie on the 11th
A special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, writ,
September, which was attributed to an officer of General
srom Paris on Wednesday, says the letters sent flea
Wimpffen's staff, implicates the Emperor too seriously
Paris to night will, in each case, borrow their hue am,
and too unjustly in the catastrophe of Sedan, for the
character from the temperament and disposition of the
officers who have the honour to remain with
writers froM whom they emanate. It would be easy for
his Majesty not to feel called upon to state the correct
the optimist to tell you that Paris is impregnable ;
facts. When the several commandants of the corps
d'armee came to inform the Emperor that their troops it would be no less easy for the pessimist to say
were repulsed, dispersed, and partly driven back into the that within forty-eight hours from the time when
town, the Emperor sent them to the Commander-in-Chief, the fortress—for such Paris has become—is summoned,
in order that he might be fully informed of the state of it will lower its colours to the enemy. The circum -
affairs. A t the same time the General sent to the Em- stances and "surroundings "—to use an Ameri-
peror two officers of his staff, bearing a note, in which he canism -of the Paris of to-night aro without a
proposed to his Majesty not to save the army, but to save parallel in history. The only city of the same rank
as the French capital which has ever before
himself, by placing himself in the middle of a strong column, ' A LADY'S ACCOUNT OF SEDAN, been invested by an enemy is the semi-fabulous
which should endeavour to reach Carignan. The Emperor An interesting letter has been sent from Madame Babylon. Within the eighteen and three-quarter cen-
refused to sacrifice a great number of soldiers to Ostermann, the wife of an artillery guard at Sedan, to a tulles which have elapsed since the dawn of Christianity
save himself, and added that Carignan was occupied by friend at Havre. The writer says ;—" M. Ostermaam no such mighty camp of men as the Paris of 1870 ever
the Prussians, but if the general thought he could save left Sedan on the 7th, accompanied by the Commandant," awoke to the consciousness that the enemy was at its
any part of the army he might make the attempt ! At as prisoner of war, They were obliged to go on foot from gates. If it be argued that- Paris has already been
the same time that tho Emperor's reply reached the corn- Sedan to Port-a-Mousson to join a convoy of officers who; besieged and taken, and that " none but itself
mander-in-chief the latter had told General Lebrun, cons- were made prisoners." In giving some details with respect, can be its parallel," it would be easy to answer
mandant of the 12th Corps, his scheme of mustering 2,000 to the days which preceded the battle, and regarding the- thats the city which Marmont, the Duke of Ragusa, em-
or 3,000 men, of putting himself at their head and cutting battle itself, she says that on the 31st of August the' ' rendered to the Allied Sovereigns in 1814, was but the
through the Prussitin lines. General Lebrun replied Emperor arrived at Sedan with tho hundred Guards and ghost of the vast and populous capital which, within
" You will cause 3,000 more men to be killed, and you his staff. On the morning of the same day sixty or seventy hours, will probably be startled by the
will not succeed, but if you mean to try it I will go with Marshal MacMahon arrived with his army, and- thunder of Prussian guns. 'lt is impossible to walk along
you." They started, but in less than half an hour at that time the French occupied a most these unconscious and heedless Boulevards without marvel-
General Wimpffen was convinced that his de- magnificent position. They held all the heights ling how they will comport themselves when they hear
sign was impracticable, and that he his no
choice but to while the Prussians were in a deep valley, but during the for the first time the " whirrr, whirr," of a shell
lay down his arms. He night the former encamped themselves while the latter hissing over their heads, and are staggered and
returned to Sedan, and considering it hard for him, who • kept on marching. At five o'clock the Prussians crossed' shaken by its shattering report when it bursts,
had only taken the command per interim, to attach his the Meuse, took possession of the French positions and` and scatters devastation among their windows and
name to a capitulation, he sent his resignation to the commenced the bombardment of Sedan. Marshal Mac-- buildings. I should be inclined to predict that
Emperor in the following terms :—" Sire, --I shall never
forget the marks of goodwill which you have bestowed Mahon came to spend an hour at the ChAteau, he was few towns are less adapted to take shelling quietly
upon me, and I should have been happy, for your sake quite calm. During the whole time the battle lasted, the" than the French metropolis. Many small towns
Emperor never stirred from the saloons of the sous-prefee: have heroically endured a feu d'enfer which has been
and for that of France, to haw concluded the clay by a tore. At nine in the morning we had the upper hand; rained into their centre ; but although there are a thousand
glorious success. I have been unable to attain this result, but soon afterwards the Prussians received reinforcements reasons why Paris ought, if she had a Spartan heart, to
and I think Ido well in leaving to others the cleirge of and the rout dbmmenced. During the thickest of the fight- laugh at a bombardment, I dare not anticipate that she
conducting our armies. I think it due, in these circum-
stances, to give in my resignation as commander-in chie
Witmeem f,
several generals were seated at dinner in the Hotel de la will quit herself under fire like Antwerp, Saragossa,
and to ask permission to retreat . —I am,c.,
Croix d'Or. The soldiers came in from all parts to Sedan Londonderry, Jellalabad, Hamburg, or Charleston-
and an &e
artillery officer ce to me crying, and asking for The Parisians lack independence and individuality of
The Emperor refused. sa It was in fact necessary that a white sheet, ' What for?" said I. "To make a white character, and, into the bargain, are more unread and
he wlio had had the honour of the command during the
flag of," said he, "We are lost." Three times was this ignorant than the inhabitants of any other great capi-
battle-should secnie as 'much as possible the safety of flag hoisted, and three times did the enemy fire upon it' tal of civilisation, with the exception ofpl. At
what remained of the army. The general understood I:lowever, at last they granted us an armistice of the same time, it is perfectly possible th atParis, even
this, and withdrew his resignation. It was then nine twelve hours. The
Times reporter, with whom if she is heavily shelled, may learn before king
o'clock in the evening, and the firing had ceased at the M. Ostermannn had been conversing the day how powerless is her enemy to do her any very serious
close of the day. It is completely false to say that the before, was killed by the bursting of an damage. In order to produce any startling effect it will
General was thwarted by the Emperor in his plans, and abres. All the army were perishing with hunger and be necessary for the Prussians to pour at least one hun- A letter to the Frankfort Gazette says that munitions
in the orders which he gave, for his Majesty only met fatigue. The officers wept and tore their hair. At my Bred thousand shot and shell into our streets and houses of war are wanting in Strasburg. The other day a
him for a moment on the battlefield between nine and house I had to lodge a whole staff of artillery, and a during every twenty-four hours. But it will be found, .
grenade, which did not burst, fell in 'a
battery, which has
ten o'clock. The General was coming from Balan, and the general of engineers. General Felix Douay rushed with even if a bombardment of this kind is attempted, that the - . . .
been erected towards the youth. On opening it it was
Emperor asked him how the battle was going on in me into the cellar to drink the remains , damage arising from it will be infinitesmally small. I
found to contain,. not powder, but stria which had been
that quarter. The General replied, " Sire, things are of a cask, On leaving, he said, " Madame ostermau need not stop to point out to Your readers what a gigantic ,
going as well a' Possible, and we are gaining ground.* On you have saved my life." In coming back from the cellar task will be imposed upon the Prussians if they under-
his Majesty observing that an officer had just told him that I had a jug of beer in my hand, which was; torn from me ' take to bring siege guns from a distaasee of more than 300 f A comical sight was to be seen a morning or two ago on
a considerable force of the enemy was outflanking our left, by of artillery.ln the same room there were s miles through an enemy's country, and to supply them ' the Place VendOme, Paris. There were about five thou-
dozen a general
the Genral replied, the much the better ! We must let dozen w„unded men stretched out. The Colonel of the with powder and projectiles sufficient to keep up a ' sand Mobiles, and they were being given new shoes and
put in t o give it necessary' weight. '
them go on; we shall throw them into the Meuse, and we 74th Regiment of the line entrusted me with the flag of constant and unintermitted fire upon SO tolossal a uniform troupers. With republican simplicity, they per-
-