The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-25 00:00:00

M A P

AIT A P

vance. The farm was soon afterwards destroyed by fire,
and the supposition is that the body of the unfortunate
General Douay has been burned.
The German surgeons describe the wounds of the
needle-guns as more shattering than those of the Chasse-
pot. The bolts of the mitrailleuse are very mangling.
The Bunel of i3erne says that Kehl was set on fire on
the 19th. The Germans opened fire on Strasbourg, and
the French replied by immediately burning Kehl, on the
opposite bank of the Rhine. The hotel Benz, near the
railway station, was the first victim. A tremendous can-
nonade was kept up all day, and the extent of the confla-
gration resulting was very great.
The German papers are becoming well-nigh unanimous
on the subject of Alsace and Lorraine. Organs of all
parties agree in demanding that Alsace and at least a part of
Lorraine—both of which provinces were taken from Ger-
many several generations ago—should be restored. In this
way, say these journals, Germany would secure a lasting
peace, and it would become impossible for France to pro-
voke a war after the manner in which she brought about
the present one. Even the Prussian Moniteur is hinting
pretty plainly in this direction.
A journal published at Charleroi states that there is a
report of the Prussians having fired on some Belgian
carabineers, mistaking them for Frenchmen. It is added
that one report says five, another seven, were killed.
It is also said by the same paper that the Prussians had
violated the Belgian frontier, and had been driven back by
Belgian troops.
The Prussian General von Manteuffel is reported to
have been interviewed by the correspondent of the Man-
dater Examiner, who writes :—" The subject of our con-
versation was the unanimity of the Germans all over
the world in this truly national war. The old General
was particularly pleased with his countrymen in England
and America, and commissioned me to say that ' even
now, the number of widows and orphans was great
beyond all imagination, and that onr Fatherland would
require the utmost efforts at the hands of all her sons and
daughters to assuage the suffering following in the tracks
of such unbounded self-forgetfulness as shewn by her best
and most devoted children !'"

desperate effort to hold on the last bit of the Verdun
road, that between Rezonville and Gravelotte—or that
part of Gravelotte which on some maps is called Mal-
maison. Desperate but unavailing ! For every one
man in their ranks ' had two to cope with, and
their line, at the place indicated, was already be•
ginning to waver. Soon it was evident that this
wing—the French right—was withdrawing to a new
position. This was swiftly taken up, under protection
of a continuous blaze of their artillery from heights be-
yond the village. The movement was made in good
order, and the position reached was one that, I believe,
nine out of ten military men would have regarded as
normally impregnable. My reader will observe that the
battle-field was from this time transferred to the regions
beyond Gravelotte. The fields in front of that village
were completely covered by the. Prussian reserves,
and over it interminable lines of soldiers were
perpetually marching onward—disappearing into the vil-
lage, emerging on the other side of it with flaming vol-
leys. This second battle-field was less extensive than the
first, and brought the combatants into fearfully close
quarters. The peculiarity of it is that it consists of
two heights intersected by a deep ravine. This woody
ravine is over 100 feet deep, and at the top from 200 to 300
yards wide. The side of the chasm next to Gravelotte
where the Prussians stood is much lower than the other
side, which gradually ascended to a great height. From
this their commanding eminence the French held their
enemies fairly beneath them, and subjected to a
raking fire. Their artillery were stationed far
up by the Metz road, between its trees. There was
not an instant's cessation of the roar ; and easily dis-
tinguishable amid all was the curious grunting roll of
the mitrailleuse. The Prussian artillery was to the
north and south of the village, the mouths of the guns
on the latter side being necessarily raised for an
awkward upward fire. The French stood their ground
and died, the Prussians moved ever forward and died ;
both by hundreds—l had almost said thousands; this for
an hour or two that seemed ages, so fearful was the
slaughter. The hill where I stood commanded
chiefly the conflict behind the village and to the
south of it. The Prussian reinforcements on their
right filed out of the Bois des Ognons ; and it was at
that point, as they marched on to the field, that one could
perhaps get the best idea of the magnitude of the
invading army now in the heart of France. There
was no break whatever for four hours in the march
of the men out of that wood. It seemed almost as if all
the killed and wounded had recovered and came again
out of the wood. Birnam Wood advancing to Dunsinane
was not a more ominous sight to Macbeth than these
men of General Goeben's army, shielded by the
woods till they were fairly within range of their enemies.
So the 'French must have felt, for between four and five
o'clock they concentrated a most furious fire upon that
point, and shelled the woods perpetually. Their fire here
took effect. The line of Prussian infantry became less
continuous from that direction. About five o'clock, how-
ever, an infantry brigade emerged from the same point.
As soon as they did so they advanced by double quick time
towards the point where their services were needed. I
watched this brigade through a strong glass from the first.
It resembled some huge serpent gliding out on the field.
But lo ! it left a track behind it—a dark track. Beneath
the glass that track is resolved into fallen, struggling
men. As the horrid significance of that path
so traced came upon me I gazed yet more intently.
Many of those who had fallen leapt up and ran
forward, struggling to catch up with their comrades
again. I did not see any running backward, though
many fell in their effort to rush on. I do not know
whether after that another movement was made from be-
hind the wood ; but I do know that a half hour after-
wards vast numbers of troops began to march over the
southern edge of the hill where I was standing towards
the battle-field, and I have an impression that these
were General Goeben's men moving by a less dan-
gerous route. The conflict on the Prussian Mt was so
fierce that it soon became nearly lost to us by reason of
its smoke. Now and then this would open a little, and
drift under the wind, and then we could see the French
sorely tried, but maintaining themselves steadily. In order
to see this part of the conflict better, I went forward a
half mile, or as near as I thought safe. It seemed to me
that here—that is in the vicinity of Malmaison—the
French were having the best of it. But it must have
been only because they were more visible on their broad
height, and fought so obstinately—plainly silencing a
battery now and then. But from this northern point
also there are more forces to come ; and from far behind
them—away seemingly in the direction of Vion-
ville—huge bombs are coming and bursting with
terrible force upon the French ranks. These were the
men and these the guns of Steinmetz, who had there and
then made his connection with Prince Friedrich Carl's
army, completing the investment of Metz. The
battle raged at this point with indescribable fury.
The French Generals must have known the
fiignifiCance of these new guns, and known that,
if their right retreated, the result must be that
incarceration in Metz which now exists. How long they

A letter in the Vienna Presse relates that in the battle
of Woerth nearly 10,000 French were wounded, and
that of these 4,000 were brought to Strasburg
by the retreating army. These were refused admis-
sion within the town, and they were hurriedly scat-
tered in the surrounding hamlets. Day and night the
peasant carts stood in the streets and roads ; the people
would not take in their bloody burdens. Along the streets
the wounded soldiers were laid down in rows before the
houses, and died in hundreds. Meanwhile, crowds of
fugitives and drunken marauders thronged past, restrained
by no discipline. Many soldiers, especially Zouaves,
behaved like madmen. They tore off their uniforms, vow-
ing, with curses on their generals, that they would not be
led into action again.

Shewing present positions of French and Prussian Armies, with the localities of recent engagements.

held out here Ido not know. I could hear that the puff
of their guns was from a gradually receding line ; that
the mysterious pillars of cloud from the north as steadily
approached ; but the last shots fired on that terrible even-
ing were on that side, and the point must have been yielded
at about nine o'clock.

infantry officers in the entire swarm ; such a rout as
neither 1859 or 1866 ever witnessed. But back I must go
to Hagenau. It was seven o'clock ; tha stream of fugitives
was less swollen. As in the fading twilight I hastened
towards the town to learn if any trains were going, I came
across five or six soldiers of various arms, leading in their
midst one Prussian prisoner, as proud as if they had got
with them the entire Prussian army. The poor man was
trembling. In such a debacle to parade one prisoner ! The
public-houses were a scene of animation. Soldiers were
busy eating and drinking; and what surprised me they
quietly paid their shot. In an upper room four infantry
officers drank their wine in silence. Five Cuirassiers sat
before a roast goose tracking mad jokes. Early next
morning at seven I was lucky enough to reach Strasburg
in a waggon."

ROME AND ITALY.—Either the revolution will
burst forth in Rome, and then the Italians will be obliged
to pass the frontier to protect order and safety, and the
spiritual liberty of the Chief of the Church ; or any such
revolt will be prevented in Rome, and then they will have
to keep their troops in idleness on the frontier. But when a
Congress meets for arranging difinitive peace they will claim
a recompense for the military sacrifices they have made,
in consequence of their position towards Rome ; and
then a final solution of the Roman problem will
be found necessary and just. This, then, is the pro-
gramme which the Italian Government intends following
upon the Roman question, and these are the reasons
which have determined such a policy, which, I believe,
has received the full approbation of the English Cabinet,
and has resulted in a moral engagement on the part of
England regarding future events. This policy has
received the praise and support of the majority of serious
men in Italy itself, and will be shortly confirmed by the
vote of the Parliament.—Florence Correspondent of the
Telegraph.
THE KING OF PRTJSAIA ON THE 18TH. —The King's
face, as he stood gazing upon the battle-field, had some-
thing almost plaintive in it. He hardly said a word, but I
observed that his attention was divided between the excit-
ing scenes in the distance and the sad scenes nearer his feet
—where they were just beginning (what must yet be
a long task) to bury the French who fell on the Tuesday
before. On these he gazed silently, and, I thought, sadly.
Count Bismarck was intent only on the battle, and could
not conceal his excitement and anxiety ; if it had
not been for the King I am pretty sure he would
have gone nearer ; and as it was, his towering form
was always a little ahead of the rest. When the
French completely gave up their hold upon the
road up to Gravelotte the horses of the " Grosshaupt-
quartiers " party were hastily called, and mounting them
they all—with the King at their head—rode swiftly down
to a point not very far from the village. Then shouts
and cheers arose, which I could plainly hear at the point
they had left, where, not having a horse, I was compelled
to remain a little longer.—Correspondent of the Daily
News.

A CAVALRY CHARGE.—From the region where
Steinmetz was supposed to be a splendid regiment of
cavalry galloped out. They paused a moment at the
point where the Conflans-road joins that leading to
Metz ; then they dashed up the road towards Metz.
This road between Gravelottes and St. Hubert is
cut through the hill, and there are on each side of it cliffs
from forty to sixty feet high, except at the point where it
traverses the deep ravine behind the village. When it is
remembered that at this time the culminating point to
which this road directly ascends was held by the
French, it will not be wondered that only a
moiety of that regiment survived. What the sur-
vivors accomplished I • do not know, nor could I
learn the name and number of the regi-
ment. The situation hardly admits yet of our asking
many questions. But their plunge into that deep cut in
the hill-side, where next day I saw so many of them and
their horses lying dead, was of that brave, unhesitating,
unfaltering kind, which is so characteristic of German
soldiers, among whom cowards, stragglers, and deserters
seem to be absolutely unknown, in whatever rank.—Cor-
respondent of Dailo News.

METZ.—This city, which was finally secured to
France by the peace of Westphalia in 1648, is worth the
plundering. Blucher, who smacked his lips at the gold-
smiths' shops of London, and exclaimed : " Here's for
plunder ! " would have revelled in Metz, which is quite a
commercial centre for the departments of Moselle, Meurthe,
and the Ardennes. Its blouses make brandy and vinegar,
gunpowder, cannon, saltpetre, leather, cotton-yarn, military
hats, muslins, beetroot-sugar, chicory, nails, hardware,
cutlery, buttons, glue, lace, brushes, flannels, pins, and
combs. Nothing comes amiss to them, from an 18-pounder
to a tenpenny nail. As a commercial town, Metz
never recovered the cruel and foolish revocation of the
Edict of Nantes, and it has now twenty thousand inhabi-
tants less than it had in the time of Charles the Fifth.
In every way Metz is military. Its royal gunpowder
factory, on an island in the Moselle, produces nearly
the best powder in France, and plenty of it is now
being experimented with on the banks of the Seine.
Its military hospital, large and airy, was built by Louis

the Fourteenth for fifteen hundred men, but it will hold
eighteen hundred. It is a noble building, in two ranges;
and will soon, we fear, echo with the groans and
shrieks of mutilated men Metz is also natu-
rally proud of its school of military engineer-
ing for young officers from the Polytechnique
It is attached to the arsenal, once part of St. Arnauld's.
Abbey, and boasts a choice library of ten thousand volumes,
besides charts, maps, and original manuscripts of Vauban.
There is also a sister establishment, a regimental school
of artillery, a handsome building, completed in 1852.
All the Year Round.
A NEW WAR ENGINE.—M. Gaudin writes to the
Siecle, describing a new engine of war which he has in-
vented, and which he proposes to employ should the Prus-
sians penetrate the enceinte of Paris. By means of this
arm, which is to be placed at the same time on the hill of
Montmartre and on the Mount Valerien, he would pre-
vent the enemy from taking up his position within a
radius of three kilometres from either of those
centres. For want of intervening heights on
the other part of the enceinte, his design would
be incomplete, and he therefore proposes to carry
his engines into the scene of action. They will be con-
formable to the usages of warfare, containing neither ex-
plosive balls, nor bombs charged with fulminating powder,
but they will be most destructive in their action, as they
will in the space of half-an-honr fling on a concentrated
force a million of projectiles, capable of producing serious
injury at a distance of of three kilometres, and of anni-
hilating it completely at 1,500 metres. The new machine
will, moreover, be calculated to produce terror
by its action which the inventor does not feel at liberty to,
explain. To produce a million of these projectiles he
requires 20 days and a sum of £10;000. He is confident
that when the deadly weapons are made no army, how-
ever strong its position, can resist them, and he is certain
that the Prussians, by their aid, can be immediately dis-
lodged from French soil, the French dictating their own
terms at Berlin. He proposes to open a national sub-
scription for this object, for which he asks government
permission. Should it be withheld he will keep back
his proposal for the day when the Corps L4g-islatif
establishes a committee of national defence. So confident
is M. Gaudin, who is calculator of the Office of Longti
tudes, of the destructive powers of his engine that he
looks to it to bring about a general disarmament by the
terrors it will add to warfare.

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