The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-06 00:00:00

TUE SUN, LONDWA, TUEBDAY: SEPTEMBER 6 A. 870

in the spring of 1814, next in the summer of 1815.-
Between those two inoldents, the successful accom-
plishment of which required the whole banded
foices of Europe in coalition, there occurred
a yet more marvellous incident in its
w;:y—the seizure of Paris by the hand of one
man, its fall at the glamour of a name, without the
firing of a shot, without the shedding of a single
drop of blood. That was on the return from Elba
and the commencement of the Reign of A Hundred
Days, by which was closed the marvellous career of
the Great NAPOLEON.

Nearly _three hundred years ago, however, Paris
was besieged, was formally beleaguered—had
eventually to capitulate: , This was in 1589, in the
famous contest between HENRY IV, and the League.
HENRY, drawing near Paris, was confronted by the
hostile forces led by the Due DE MAYENNE, who tried
to bar his road to the capital. The opposing armies met
in battle array near Dreux, on the plains of Ivry.
There the chivalrous monarch disdained to prepare,
in any way, for the possibility of being worsted,
"No retreat," said he, " h'it the battlefield." Before
the shock of arms came, the confronting hosts
offered up prayers to the GOD of Battles. Bare-
headed, HENRY IV. advanced o❑ horseback, in the
presence of his soldiers, crying aloud—" Lord ! you
know my thoughts. If it be advantageous for my people
that I should reign, favour my cause and protect my
arms !" Turning, then, to the warriors who had greeted
the utterance of these noble words with acclamations,
he called aloud to them—" My children ; If stan-
dards should fail you, follow my white plume, you
will always find it in the road to honour." Hence
the white plume of HENRY IV. at Ivry is familiar
to the captivated imagination of the world ever since
as among the most heroic crests fluttering above the
crash of war—

And thus he earned a prouder name than herald ever gave,
The foremost of the foremost, and the bravest of the brave !
Victorious there on the fuughten field, the
King marched on to Paris in defiance of
the forces of the League both vithin
and without its defences. The City at
his instance was blockaded. Famine and pestilence
and mortality were soon the terrible consequence.
Chivalrous almost to eccentricity, HENRY himself
secretly sent provisions to the besieged. Eventually
Paris fell not before the arms of the King but be-
fore his abjuration of Protestantism. "It is worth a
mass," was his remark. And on the 25th of July, at
St. Denis, HENRY IV., placing his hands between
those of the Archbishop of BOURGES publicly pro-
nounced his profession of faith as a Catholic. Him-
self intoning T e Dsum, immediately afterwards his
voice was drowned in shouts of Vive le Roi from
those assembled in the Cathedral. Subsequently
came a three months' truce, and at last during the
night of the 22nd of March in the following year
Paris quietly surrendered. The gates were opened,
the portcullises raised, the drawbridge lowered, and
the troops in solemn silence marched in and took
possession of the capital.

It was on the last day of March, in 1814, that the
ex-King JOSEPH resolved upon the then capitulation.
While NAPOLEON was yet hastening to the service
of the metropolis of France the allies entered it,
having been admitted by treachery. The news, reached
the EMPEROR on the following day, the Ist of April,
and immediately on learning what had occurred he
fell back on Fontainebleau. NAPOLEON still retained
under his banners 50,000 of his veterans. Desertion,
however, rapidly followed upon desertion among
the Marshals and other dignitaries of the
Imperial Court, the result being NAPOLEON'S
first abdication. It was on the 20th of
March, 1815, that he arrived from Elba at
the Tuileries. A hundred da3 s afterwards
came the second BOURBON Restoration. On
the 3rd of July a military convention was formally
signed between FoucHE and DAvousT on the part
of France, and WELLINGTON and BLUCHER on the
part of the Allies. On the 7th, the Allied forces
occupied Paris once more, and on the Bth Lours
XVIII. again entered the capital as Sovereign. Thus
has history since then, again and again, repeated
itself; in 1830, in 1848, in 1870, at Paris in a
series of giddy gyrations. The round is not yet,
this last time, completed. It remains to be seen
how promptly the surrounding nations will recog-
nise, as they did in 1848, the full and free right of
the French nation to select their own form of govern-
ment.

TOPICS OF TEE DAY.

thonyl►t the power of Engl►►nd was endangered by
the great Indian nituiny, and the sentiments of
France were at that time completely in harmony with
his-o\\n. •

THE IRISH SYMPATHY FOR FRANCE,

The feelins of sympat by for France is perhaps more
widespread eni fervent in Ireland than it will be in
the other portions of the kingdom. A story is told of
an Irish nertrsboy, who on Saturday last even allowed
his partiality for France imprudently to interfere
with the prospects of his calling by shouting out,
"Sixth edition, another Prussian victory, another
pack of lies." Sympathy in Ireland, however, must
not be supposed to be a pertinacious or dogged one.
From the opening of the war the people have beet
reminded of French help in the famine years
and of the benevolence of the Empress in bestowing
vuluable gifts to almost every Catholic bazaar held
for charitable purposes in
,Dublin. There has also
been awakened a pity for the losing side, which is not
an uncommon characteristic of Irish character, how-
ever blameable that side may have been in getting
into its trouble. Lastly, the remnant of the Papal
Brigade who fought valiantly with the Imperial
soldiers against the Italian Forces, and
the survivors of the Crimean campaign, yield their
sympathy. They recollect with gratification days in
camp and struggles in action with a French
neighbour. memories which are never forgotten, and
which moreover when told at Irish cottage firesides
help to extend the veneration that is felt for the
country that has so helped to preserve the strength
of the Holy Father, and to stretch forth the hand of
cordial friendship to Spain, Ireland, and other
nations, whose people have upheld the principles of
that faith, which among one half of the population
of the sister island at least is believed to be the key-.
note of their life and of their labours. From all
these sources the feeling for
.France and France
alone has been generated, and there is no greater
evidence of the universality of this sympathetic
tendency than in the fact that, while hundreds of
pounds have been collected among the Irish for
French sufferers in the war, not one hundred
pounds has been contributed in that country for the
Germans.