The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-10 00:00:00

THE BOMBARDMENT OF MONTMEDY;

The correspondent of the Standard, writing from
Montmedy on the 6th instant, says --" I entered this
afternoon Montmedy to judge for myself of the damage
made by the storming of yesterday, and to have details
from the heroic defenders of the fortress who have so
bravely resisted and sworn not to surrender. After the
different attacks I mentioned in my letter of yesterday, the
Prussians did retire towards evening, and to-day they have
entirely disappeared from the neighbourhood, except a few
stragglers who can be met now and then towards the
village of Frenay. It would seem that the Prussian
artillery have determined to give up the besieging of the
fortress. For six hours the fire directed on the town was
at the rate of ten shots per minute, and the return from the
fortress about seven in the same time. The Prussianborahe
were all directed against the buildings inside the walls, their
object being evidently to set the place on fire, and obtain a
prompt capitulation. The Palace of Justice and several
houses are entirely burned "; the church, pierced all over
by bullets, is standing yet, and the provisions stored in it
are safe. Two men were
,killed and five wounded. The
besiegers had one battery dismounted, and must have
lost many men. At twelve o'clock, when ;they momen-
tarily ceased their fire, they sent an order demanding capi-
tulation. The commandant peremptorily refused,
lac and
answered that he was determined to blow up the pe
sooner than give in. Too much praise cannot be given to
that brave commandant. His name is Rebaul. He is a
retired cavalry captain. His second, a captain of artil-

lery of thp Mobile Guard, and ex-commander in the mer-
chant service, named Loiaree, is equally determined, and,
with the sous-prefet, has shewn a wonderful skill in point,
ing the batteries. The greatest praise must be given
also to the Guard Mobile, about 500 in number, who have
devotedly executed the orders of their commander. What.
ever may happen next. Montmedy has done her duty'.
The little tortzess deserves the thanks of the country.
The Surgeon-General, Baron Larrez, is attending with
devotion to he wounded, who have been transferred to
the hospital ; and the great events which have taken
place, perfectly known to all previously to the siege, have
not diminished the undaunted courage of these brave
Frenchmen.

IN THE TRENCHES BEFORE STRAS-
BURG.

Almost under our feet, divided from us only by a green
field of grass—every dent in its outworks and blemish 111
its ramparts plainly visible to the naked eye, lay Saar
burg, nestling at the feet of its magnificent Minster,
the tower and spire of which were dyed a dark red'
purple by the rays of the setting sun. Immediately he"
neath us, answering every halfTminute with a roar that
shook the floor beneath our feet, and made the tiles above
our heads rattle again, to the short, sharp command, of
the directing officer above mentioned, were ranged
six long black tubes, peering over a ridge of fresblY"
turned clay towards the city, and dealing nnt,
death and ruin every time they strain°
their dark throats in awful utterance. During the,
ten minutes of my sojourn in that dusky eyrie they on'
four shells into the work nearest us with such precision
and force that about twenty feet of its outer face was
Blown outwards, as if by an earthquake. Suddenly the
fortress replied with half a dozen big guns, in rapid suc-
cession; two shells from which struck ground in front
of the battery, about twenty yards from the road
passing the brewery gates,'„whilst. one crashed into
a cottage hard by a -gasometer, a little to our left
and set its roof in a blaze within a minute.
This was war in earnest ; and I would have
gladly remained in so advantageous a position for
the rest of the evening, but was compelled to witir
draw at the request of my conductor, who informed me
that the French would probably, according to their
Custom, throw a few shells at the look-out about night-
fall, and he would rather not expose any amateur Visi.
tors to such serious casulties, as too frequently occur
within the precincts of his command. After thanks is
him for his courtesy, I took my leave, and returned, am
the deafening clamour of the batteries, to Matson
Rouge, where I found Von B—n awaiting me'
with the welcome intelligence that supper was readY',
and a famous brew of punch in course cn
concoction, as a prelude to our night expedition.
The nights wax cool, not to say cold, already; and 59
„
inner garment of hot punch is an excellent antidote "
the damp evening chills. As such we assumed it;
and, rejoicing at the genial warmth it yielded, set
off at 10 o'clock in the direction of Strasburg. We ha"
hardly got clear of Eckbolsheim when the brilliant,
spectacle of a night bombardment was fully revealed to
our eyes. Diverging to the left from the chauss6e upon
the open country, in effecting which movement, the nigh
being pitch dark, I got a rether heavy fall—we stood lb
while upon the broad green plain environing the city'
with nothing between us and Strasburg but the angry
batteries, and the silent trenches crowded with infantry
supports. From every direction within the range of °°:
glasses came and went the bombs and shells, the furtei
sailing thsough the air in sweeping, grace
curves, and seeming to drop quite gently into the Worn °
trench—the latter hurtling and screeching along in
rently straight lines, and betraying their arrival at thei"
respective goals by a heavy thud and a loud crash of eict
plosion. After spending a quarter of an hour in raP
contemplation of this splendidly terrible sight, we broke
up our party, half of our number returning to the
village to snatch a few hours' much-needed sleep, and til,et
other half, including myself, to push on to the forerun;
trench, occupied, as it happened, for the night h333'
friend, Captain Dumont—a post of extreme (lane:.
Challenged by guard after guard, sentinel after sentinel'
we walked quickly through a bye-path to the left, got under
,
the shelter of a long wall, skirted by a narrow footpath'
leading onwards to the glacis of the fortress, from
at intervals, a flash of fire and deep-toned 4‘ booni
warned us that its garrison was awake and 101'
The first injunction laid upon us was to extUr
guish our cigars, as they offered a capital mark fort ileh
sharpshooters in pits under the walls, from whit
we were only four hundred yards distant ; the
not to speak above a whisper, our voices being plainly
audible to the marksmen in question, who are excellent
hands at an approximate shot. These regulations having
;
been complied with, we knelt down in the straw "scl",.F,
which the trench was lined, and bestowed our NO%
attention on the firing. This was of a rather corul)lfea
description, as we were between the 111°r[i.
and 241 b. batteries and the fortress—the L°,-4;
mer firing over us, and the latter at us. We were "it
close, in fact, that when a shell from behind us still;
a house in the faubourg of Strasburg immediutteed
in our front, we could hear the shrieks of the affrigh;ts
women and children, as they fled into the streets
from one danger to another. The city, upon our 4
rival, was already on fire in two places, whilst the do the
of Schilligheim were burning on our left. As for tf..,
new 24-pounder battery, our near neighbour, its activrt
and acharnement—l know of no English synonYin„:l
the word—were simply appalling. Every gun it j'l,o
—and it must have fired sixty or seventy whilst I Ito
near it—shook the earth beneath us, and seemed a
drive in the drums of our ears. Fort Blanc tregtell
us to some ordnance of a still heavier descriPti°,
—4B-pounders, I should soy, at the least. The Prussian
e;
too, were unremitting in their attack from their battens
near Schilligheim ; and every now and then the heuveo,o
were lustrous with flying luminaries, some like cone 0,
some like falling stars, others like gleaming nietera
slowly gliding through infinite space to some unknu'
undream of celestial realm.—Correspondentacf Tele0(61)

IN MEMORIABL—The Very Rev. Dr. 013....teg91
Roman Catholic Dean of Cork, on Tuesday eve,l4
...,,
during an address to the Liverpool Catholic 1)-r,0
Men's Society, spoke of the news of the EnWer°•o
captivity and the establishment of a Republic
France, and said,—" It is not my business to viil"l,4
gate Louis Napoleon, and there are many all
of which every one of us has to complain; but,
events in Ireland—l may say in England—if a lie
wrought for twenty years with so much success, n
ss
had raised his nation to such a position of graoidirtirjese
France, if he had filled its coffers with what men
days most regard, and had raised the country to 3 P5111.1°1eie
0
of power, I do not think that in these islands, bad 35 „
might be, we would universally despise that man bec310),,e
he had lost one battle, or forsaken him in 3
tj •
because he has not satisfied all our expectt',-,.°0%
Aye, and something more was expected
French chivalry for that woman who sat act.
in the cholera hospitals, who laid her fair 11,3111,1
upon the fevered brow of misery, who led her only c: to
from bed to bed, to teach him what sympathy was di1,,,-tea
humanity and the dignity of the subjects he was "P'i-ber
to govern ; that woman-who made rough natures fee'der
tender compassion, and hardened hearts feel her teodw.
ness in all the institutions for which she cared so f°,,lia to
Surely this woman deserved better than to be comPel'e
so
fly by night to a foreign country from the land she loves
well ?"

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