The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-27 00:00:00

A SECOND MAID OF ORLEANS.

The correspondent of the Cologne Gazette, writing from
Versailles on the 21st inst., states :—" Whilst the formid-
able prepasations are being made for the enormous park
of artillery around Paris, in order to make an energetic
attack upon the forts and fortifications of that town, the
men in the French camp seem to repose now upon less
material affairs. We are informed, of course after
the successful occupation of the town of Orleans,
and that in a most serious manner, of the appearance of
a maid,' a modern Joan of Arc, who has suddenly
sprung up from the department of the Loire Inf erieure,
and who is to inspire fresh courage and new hopes into
the hearts of the French. This inspired young female,
who, like unto her predecessor in the reign of Charles
VII., has visions, and has heard the voice of the Mother
of God, does not appear to consider it necessary this time
to submit herself to an examination as to whether she
is in communication with or possessed by the powers
of darkness.' In the present case also the 'maid'
wears neither armour nor sword, but a long black robe,
no doubt to denote her sorrow as to the position of her
mother country. Up to the present time the superior
command of the Army of the Loire has not been entrusted
to her. Nevertheless, she marches at the head of the
troops who are still in Tours, and carries before them a
silken banner, upon which is painted the Holy Virgin,
with the Infant Jesus ; and, in fact, the whole affair looks
as if the advisers of this new paragon had been guided by
a zealous study of Sohiller's Maid of Orleans.' This
information, although a seeming fable, has been stated
officially from the headquarters of the Army of the South,
and is therefore worthy of being chronicled."

GENERAL UHRICH IN HIS OWN

DEFENCE.

General Uhrich, the defender of Strasburg, has
addressed the following letter to M. Ad. Boyd, his
cousin, in answer to certain accusations directed against
him :

"Bale, Oct. 15.
"Sir and Cousin,—Your letter of October 4 reached me
here only yesterday, and I regret it. I have long been
aware that the Tarpeian Rock is not far from the Capitol.
lam now having a sad experience of it. That people
might reproach me with insufficiency and incapacity I
could understand ; but with treason—this is infamous.
Treason towards whom ? Is it towards the Republic and
the Government of the National Defence? But it was
myself who caused them both to he recognised in Stras-
burg. Treason could be understood at the beginning of
an investment; but after two months' siege, after having
seen a city burnt and overthrown, its inhabitants killed,
its garrison decimated, where could treason slip up ?
" The road from Strasburg is open ; let anyone go and
see its fortress destroyed, its ramparts ploughed up, its
artillery annihilated, its outworks rendered untenable, and
a breach made in two of the bastion's ; let anyone stop
before the ruins of its monuments and of its houses ; let
any one realise the shower of iron, lead, and fire which
covered all its military grounds, and examine those
powerful, and till now unknown, projectiles which were
thrown at us by 200 guns—and, far from saying that
the surrender of the town was premature, he will only be
astonished that a bombardment, unprecedented to this
day, could be withstood during the space of thirty-eight
days and as many nights. The situation had become the
more complicated by the loss of 35,000 metallic rockets,
which were burnt,together with the arsenal of the citadel,
and which nothing could replace. In spite of that, we
could have resisted as long as the bulk of the place re-
mained intact; but, during the last days, the enemy's
works of approach took a turn of extraordinary activity.
They succeeded in crowning our covered ways ; in making
iron coverings for the protection of the troops who were
to give the assault ; and in opening two breaches—one,
Which was practicable, in bastion No. 12, and the other
in bastion No. 11, which two hours' fire would have been
sufficient to make also practicable.
"It was impossible for us to resist the assault. The
ramparts and all the approaches, being cannonaded by
the enemy's powerful artillery, could not have been held
by the defenders of the breach, who, in less than half an
hour, would have been annihilated; and the enemy
would have carried the assault without striking a blow.
Were we—or rather was I—to expose the unfortunate
city of Strasburg, which had already suffered so much, to
the horrors which follow an assault, when we had not a
single chance of a successful resistance? My council of
defence was not of that opinion—and surely the energy
of that body will not be assailed—and, being con-
sulted by me, it unanimously declared, after a long de-
liberation—

" Ist. That the assault could not be withstood with any
chance of success ;

"2nd. That the time had come to capitulate.
" What followed was the necessary consequences. Yes,
I declare it emphatically, military honour is safe. At-
tacked by the brave, or by the persons who, without think-
ing, yielded to a first impression, I wish I could have re-
mained silent, and have waited till truth had made its own
way. But the word `treason' made it for me a duty to
protest, with all the strength of an honest and long-tested
conscience. I invite the most minute investigations into
my career of fifty-two years of military service—a career
that the talk of a few ill-informed or malevolent
individual cannot tarnish. I might have spoken to you
of the neglect with which Strasburg was abandoned,
without a garrison, without sufficient artillerymen, with-
out the smallest engineer detachment. I might have told
you many other truths still, but I should be obliged to go
beyond the limits of a personal defence, within which I
wish to remain.

"Do with this letter what you may think proper. If I
may express a desire, it is that it should receive as much
publicity as possible.
" Receive Sir, and dear cousin, my thanks for the frank-
ness with which you have made me acquainted with the
reports that were circulating about me. I know how to
appreciate the upright feelings which prompted you.
Once more, I thank you.

" Receiie, Sir and cousin, the assurance of my friendly
sentiments.

(Signed) " General UHRICH."

THE GERMANS AT ORLEANS.

The Germans have thoroughly installed themselves at
Orleans, having completely routed the French force
opposed to them, the remnant of which was only
saved from capture or destruction by• the timely aid
of the railway. The Orleans line is close to
the main Chauss6e and the railway employs were deserv-
ing of all praise for their steadiness, so that they were
able to render material assistance to the retreat thus

effected after a novel fashion. The French repeated the
old mistake of dividing their forces and fighting with
part one day and part the next. The Frenchmen
at Arthenay numbered 12,000 or 15,000, but they were
held in check by the Bavarians, their inferiors in point
of number, while the other German troops came up.
After a fierce fight, in which the French were worsted,
the cavalry moved round to cut off their retreat
and they fell back in disorder on Orleans. Here the rail-
way saved them, but they lost 1,200 prisoners. In this
struggle the most noticeable feature was the employment
of Count Durheim's mitrailleuse battery by the Bavarians
who were much interested in the use of the new weapon.
' At Orleans itself some resistance was made, but it was
chiefly on the part of the Papal Zouaves, the Foreign
Legion, and the Turcos, the regular troops being alto-
gether disorganised. However, the Germans
occupied the heights, and poured their shot and shell
resistlessly on the defenders, who finally retreated
leaving 2,000 wounded and 1,000 prisoners. Besides these
there were some 1,200 Germ an wounded, so that Orleans
had plenty of sufferers to care for. The inhabitants were
terrified by the affray, and by the burning of thei

suburbs. Happily, strict discipline was maintained by
the assailants, and the city was spared from destruction
or sack.

PRUSSIANISED POLES FIGHTING FOR
GERMANY.
From a Berlin telegram we learn that the two field•
pieces taken from the French in the sortie of Saturdal
were captured by the 50th, one of the regiments of the
province of Posen. Like many of the regiments from the
East of Prussia, this is in part composed of Prussianized
Poles, and it is not surprising that their ago
should claim for them a share of the Lite
warlike honours. Their strength lies mainly iu
the sth corps (" the fighting sth," as English
correspondents have christened it) and in the 6th (the,
Silesian), but especially in the former. After the battle el
Woerth, in which that corps, as is well known, did most of
the hard fighting for the Crown Prince, there was a wo,r11!
controversy in the German press as to the number of
Poles in it, the pro-Polish section estimating this as high
as one-third. The other party admitted that there
were in this corps alone 4,000 Poles, strictly such, who
could not speak a word of German. It is a strange freak
of fortune which finds these Slavonians fighting for the

unity of Germany against the very nation which has
from the first protested against the partition of Poland'
Surely this fact reveals the Nemesis which waits on such
time-serving policy as the elder Napoleon, who sacrificed
again and again during his career of conquest the nascent
hopes of Poland, his faithful ally, to the interests of
Austria, his very unfaithful ally—a policy that even Dl'
Thiers has been forced to pronounce feeble and mistaken'
—Pall Mall Gazette.

A decree of the Mayor of Lyons suspends all balls and
festirals, and directs cafes and cabarets to close at eleven
o'clock in the evening.
There was great trouble and disorder in Metz on the
19th when an attempt was made to proclaim the Republic.
Marshal Bazaine set himself against this endeavour.
" We have had," says the Carlsrulte Gazette, " lettere
from soldiers serving in the Baden division with the army
in the Vosges, in which they state that the French
frequently fight with the utmost obstinacy, and that they
are at the present moment very well officered."
The Marquis de Castlebaaic, who was said to have
been shot in Paris for counselling surrender, denies the
statement. He is in Normandy, and occupies himself
with the French in succouring the wounded, and has been
so engaged for many weeks.
The Allgemeine Zeitung says that, in order to reinstate
the library of Strasburg, an appeal has been made to the
several German universities, academies, learned socitiee,
publishers, authors, and others who have the diffusion of
German literature at heart.

General Bourbaki has expressed himself agreeably S 1
prised with the state of things he has found throughout
the North, and he has so disposed the troops under 111.4
command that in two hours an army of 50,000 men could
be concentrated at any given place in these departments'
At Versailles an extraordinary disproportion between
prices exists. The finest fruit, vegetables, and other
perishable articles may be had for a mere song ; but sugar,
salt, coffee, and the like are wofully dear, and so is soap
and forage.

At the siege of Verdun, the Prussians found it ziecessal
to increase the number of their siege-gans, but as ther3
was a risk in placing them they put, says a Tours papers
some French peasants to the task. When these dreg
back to escape the fire the Prussians pushed them for•
ward with their bayonets, inflicting serious wounds upon
them.

Two numbers of a Metz newspaper have fallen into the
hands of Dr. Horn, of the Cologne Gazette. One of them
noticed mortality among the horses in consequence of bad
weather, but deprecated anxieties as to the continuance of
the siege, as the diminution of rations and the appeals of
the authorities to the inhabitants had placed the Goverile
ment in possession of a mass of provisions. Its reader°
were also assured that all France was rising.
Letters from Marseilles say, that fax from obeying the
orders which came from Tours, the demagogues of the
town are more than ever inclined to take the direction a
affairs into their own hands. At a council, which the
held, they went to the length of putting a price on Gam'
betta's head, and opened a subscription for the puree
of furthering the scheme.

Felix Dalin, in an article in the Allgeineine Zeituoo
insists that Prussia must annex Alsace, German Lorraine,
and Luxembourg, as a preparation for an inevitable War,
with the united Latins and Sclavonians.' France Mu
certainly thirst for revenge, and Russia's favourable atti•
tude towards Prussia, which is based .on personal feeling,
and on a transitory weakness, will be reversed.
The letters of the French soldiers who are prisoners are
!,
subjected to inspection before they are sent away, and 11
they contain any disparaging remarks on the Prussians
they are put aside. The other day a young man resorted
to an ingenious device, and signed his letter in some
patois words which signified that they were dying '3,
hunger. The Prussians being ignorant of the dialect e'
his district, allowed the letter to pass, and it reached its
destination.

A correspondent of a German paper confirms the state'
meat respecting the hostility to Germans prevalent in
Strasburg. " Assassinations are occurring, and it is
stated that several soldiers are missing. The compasei°ll
and generosity extended to Strasburg through the whole
length and breadth of Germany fall indeed upon a most
'Barren and ungrateful soil. Hatred exists in its direct
form, and, what is most remarkable, it is more partial'
larly evinced against the Baden soldiers."
The Grenzboten publishes an article recommending that
Northern Schleswig should be given up to Denmark. The
Danish speaking inhabitants most earnestly desire seParti.
tion. " Since 1864," says the journal, " the country
which northwards stretches from Flensburg to the Kong'
sal, is in a continuous, chronic state of war. A tolerable
degree of tranquillity can be maintained only by strict
watchfulness on the part of the authorities, and by excel)"
tional measures. As often as Prussia is involved in
difficulty with another country, as in 1866 with Austria,
and in 1870 with France, the inhabitants of this district,
in their hearts pray for the success of the foreign power.
The Cologne Gazette supports this view.
M. Wilfrid de Fonvielle recently offered to take a bal'
loon out of Paris and then pilot it back again. Nobody
has yet been able to steer a balloon, but it was resolved to
try the experiment. Accordingly the largest balloon yet
made was constructed for M. de Fonvielle. It had a hog;
basket fit to hold ten passengers, and it was to be fillet'
with hydrogen, which is considerably lighter than the
ordinary coal gas used for the balloons of Nadar, .01
which, therefore, might be expected to carry a greater
load. The machine was got ready (it took three weeks to
make), and the passengers were going to step in, when the
anchoring ropes broke, and the balloon went off without
passengers or cargo of any kind.

The France publishes the following cry of despair
" We are no longer Frenchmen, for our soldiers accustc°
themselves to being made prisoners, our armies capitulate,
our generals have forgotten how to conquer. We are 11°
longer Frenchmen, for at Paris a regiment flies from the
enemy, without firing a shot; at Orleans our soldiers,
who were considered the best in the world, run swill;
only the Mobiles and the Volunteers of the west skew a
good attitude, and set an example which is not followed,
We are no longer Frenchmen, for our officers do not study
war, and consequently know nothing of it. The great art
of war, which our fathers had brought to such perfection,
they have forgotten."

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BIRTHS.

On the 22d inst. at Ham Hill, Worcester, the Marchioness

of Queensberry, of a son.
On the 23d inst., at Melford Hall, Suffolk, the wife of Slr
William Parker, Bart., of a son.

MARRIAGES.

On the 22nd inst., at St. Mark's Notting-hill, Artiltir
Elderton, Lieut.-Colonel Bengal Staff Corps, to Ann?
Elizabeth, youngest daughter of the late Lieut.-Colonel
E. Toms, 66th Regt., of Knolton-hall, Overton, Flint.
shire.
On the 25th inst., at St. Stephen's, South Kensington'
Edwin Alfred, son of the late Joseph Simpson Paine'
Esq., of Richmond, Surrey, to Georgina Emily Vincen
daughter of W. D. H. Oehme, Esq.. of Elvaston-placc,
Queen's-gate.

DEATHS.
On the 24th inst., at his residence, Orange-hill, near
Edgware, James Hall, Esq., aged 86.
On the 24th inst., at 142, King's-road, Chelsea, ThoniaB
Love Bull, Esq., aged 73.

London : Printed by GIDEON ACLAND BOYCE,
I'
No. 112, Strand, Printer, and Published by him
THE SUN Office, No. 112 al
, Strand, in the Precinct of e
Savoy, in the County of Middlesex.
Thursday, October 27, 1870.