The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-07 00:00:00

THE BURNING OF BAZEILLES.

The burning of the town of Bazeilles, near Sedan, is a
sore point of dispute amongst writers on the war. The
French ane Germans each contradict the other ; and the
English, who might be expected to form a trustworthy
opinion on the subject, are so little at one, that it is ex-
tremely difficult to draw a conclusion from independent
testimony. Some say that when the Bavarians occupied
Bazeilles they burned the town down and behaved most
barbarously to the inhabitants. Others aver that the suffer-
ings inflicted were grossly exaggerated, and the Bavarians
destroyed the place because the people killed their
wounded. The Duke of Manchester takes the German
side, Mr. Seymour supports the French. A correspondent
of the Daily News, however, represents bolh that the
barbarities of the Bavarians were even worse than they
have been depicted, and that they were entirely without
justification. The Bavarians lost heavily, but in fair
fight with the French troops. Only one woman fired upon
the troops, and her husband and son had been killed.
The writer adds :—During the fight certain thinks took
place which have not yet been made public. A woman of
independent means, named Ducheny, was so foully abused
by the soldiers—and that phrase is intended to describe the
most serious outrage that can be inflicted upon woman—
that she died three days afterwards, This fact was
attested by the priest, who confessed the woman in her
dying moments. Her house was subsequently set on fire,
andthe outer walls only nowremain. Many of the villagers,
deceived by the proclamations of the Germans, remained, be-
lieving that war was not made upon them. When the
fight commenced numbers hid themselves in the cellars of
their houses. M. Robarts, a wealthy brewer, and his
servant, were dragged from the cellar of their house
and shot. In another house two children named De-
haye, one six months and the other eighteen months old,
were pitched from the window of the, house into the street
by the Bavarians, then thrown back again into the
house, which was set en fire, and the children burnt ; but
their parents escaped. A young man named Remy, 32
years of age, who had been confined to his bed two years
with a spinal complaint, was bayonetted and killed as he
lay on, his couch. In another house, a man named
Vanchelet, his daughter, his brother-in-law, and his
father-in-law, were fastened in the cellar and burnt
to death. Their charred remains were subsequently
buried by some of their neighbours, who had known
them. Cotin Chartier, a married man with a family, was
wounded by a ball in the shoulder and made a prisoner.
He was tied up, naked, in the railway station for eight
days, and then died from his wound. Henri Aubergiste,
landlord of the Golden Lion, was shot on the doorstep of
his house. These are the names of some of the sufferers,
and I have no doubt that a complete list of those killed
may be obtained when the Prussians are gone. • But at
present, out of a population of nearly two thousand,
scarcely fifty remain.

The Prussians have taken possession of Beauvais
without opposition. They will make it a victualling
cent/ e.

The ground in front of the Paris forts is often illumi-
nated by the electric light so powerfully that anewspaper
can be read at a distance of two miles.

At the Augeville railway station, near Paris, the Ger-
mans found, buried under the ground, thousands of bottles
of syrups and the finest extracts, also some champagne.
In the adjacent chAteau thirty-five bottles of wine were

'ound buried. The place was completely deserted.

Seven railway carriages, cased with iron and loopholed,
intended to convey troops upon the Western line, have
been sent from the station of Rennes to Mans. The two
locomotives to which these carriages are to .be attached
have also been cased with iron.
M. F. Pyat announces in the Combat that the musket
of honour which is to be given to the man who shoots the
King of Prussia is to have inscribed upon it the word
" Peacemaker." The impression at Paris seems to be that
if the King were killed, all the remaining German leaders
would be ready for peace.
Mr. Edgcomb, one of the correspondents in the neigh
bourhood of Paris, suffered the usual fate of those en-
gaged in his business. He was arrested as a spy, and
matters were in this case pushed unpleasantly far, for he
was led out to be shot, and only escaped by the " skin of ,
his teeth " at the last moment.

It is a favourite expedient with the inhabitants of Paris
to mount the flag of the Convention of Geneva above
their houses, in order to protect them from Prussian balls.
It is also a favourite expedient with the men to enrol
themselves among the followers of the red cross.. This
non-fighting body is thought to be agreat deal too numerous.
The Daily News correspondent 'notes that Rochefortl
who was regarded even by his friends as a vain, mad.
brained demagogue, has proved himself one of the most
sensible and practical members of the Government. He
has entirely subordinated his own particular views to the
exigencies of the defence of the capital : and it is owing to
his good sense that the ultras have not indulged in any
revolutionary excesses.

A gentleman who is shut up in Metz succeeded in get-
ting a letter out of the place by balloon. It is a very thin
slip of paper, about four inches long by two broad, con-
taining the address on one side and whatever the writer
could say on the other. Unfortunately the writer does
not appear to have been at liberty to give any information
whatever on the state of affairs inside the fortress. The
letter is addressed to his wife, and the balloon containing
it fell between Metz and Verdun. The French postal
authorities forwarded it to London at a charge of a franc
and a half. Thence it was forwarded to Lancashire, after
a fresh charge of sixpence.

LATE NEWS FROM PARIS.
The Pall. Mall Gazette has received the following from its
correspondent by balloon post :

"PARIS, MONDAY.
" Having just received notice that there is the pes'
sibility of sending a letter in a quarter of an hour, I
write a few hurried
,lines, as there is much doubt P.
to the arrival of the epistles which correspondents send
by balloon. Paris itself is quiet, and the people, con-
fident in the powers of the Republic, are determined
to fight to the last. Every attempt made by ultra-demo,
gognes to disturb the Provisional Government has failed,
and there is a tacit understanding now that all partY
quarrels shall be laid aside until after the war. Though
the National Guards and Mobiles are not pulling very
well together I have come to the conclusion that the pro-
fessional jealousies between the two corps will not have
any serious result. In the encounters which have
taken place outside the walls the line have not behaved
well, and severe examples have been made, but with the
Mobiles the case is different. Their conduct in the face
of the enemy has been unimpeachable, and I have onlY
heard of one instance of a, moblot having
committed a gross breach of discipline -- he was
shot yesterday morning for rape and robbery.
On Friday last there was severe fighting
in the neighbourhood of Villejuif, Chevilly, and
Hay. A strong reconnaissance was made by the French,
who tumbled as usual into a kind of ambush, and were
driven back with heavy loss. As far as we can learn,
however, the Germans also suffered considerably, as some
of the outlying forts took part in the engagement, and
did great execution in the ruined villages, behind whose
walls the enemy had taken up his position. The battle-field
remained in the hands of the Germans, who speak highly
of the courage of the French soldiers, but say that they
were badly led, and further that they were well aware
that this sortie was about to be made, as they had received
notice of it from friends in Paris. Saturday and SundaY
were quiet, and, in fact, there was an armistice yesterday
during which the dead were buried.

" We are very badly off here for meat, as there is some
difficulty between the butchers and the Government. I
rather suspect that the sheep and cattle have b' en dying
for want of proper food, and that there is a scarcity
which is beginning to be severely felt.
" Paris was much grieved yesterday to learn the fall of
Toul and Strasburg, and the statue of the latter town is
to be cast in bronze in memory of Uhrich's heroic de-
fence.

" Thursday, tho Republicans' New Year's Day, or Ist
Vend6miare, threatened to be stormy, but blew
over quietly. The clubs and other Republican
paraphernalia announced a manifestation in front of the
Hotel de Ville, to force the Government in a peaceful
way."

[Our correspondent encloses a copy of Monday's Coma-
tutionnel, consisting of only a 'single sheet. In it appears
the official announcement, which it seems the Parisians
had only just received, of the fall of Toul and Strasburg•]

General Treshow is in command of the Germany arinY
that is to march into Southern France.
The Democratic Workmen's Union at Berlin have met
and adopted a resolution against the annexation of Alsace
and Lorraine, and against the arrest of Dr. Jacoby. Count
Bismarck came in for much invective on v.,-....Junt of his
annexation policy.
The French soldiers captured by the Germans have
been set to work. At Augsburg above a thousand, are
making a road, at Magdeburg 2,000 are constructing an
embankment for the Elbe, and in Hanover 4,000 are
reclaiming waste lands.
A letter published by the Journal of Frankfort declares
that the force besieging Phalsburg, the Vosges fortress, is
becoming greatly disheartened. Tile peasants attack
the trains that bring their stores by night. The soldiers
are exhausted by fatigue, sleep being almost denied
them. One company has 72 invalids beside the
wounded.

General de Failly, whose military incompetence con-
tributed so greatly to the disaster of Sedan, has a beautiful
country estate near Pierrefonds. The Prussians have
recently paid it a visit, and one of the officers slept in the
general's bed. He left an inscription " Thanks, Mon-
sieur, without you I should not have slept here." He Was
alluding to the double errors of Reichshoffen and Sedan.
Hunger was the cause of General Uhrich's surrender at
Strasburg. No meat was left in the city except horse-
flesh, and that cost two francs the half kilogramme—a
little more than a pound. A handful of dried beans com-
manded between 2f. and 3f., one egg was cheap at Si%
sous, and a greengrocer who parted with carrots at three
sous a-piece " was considered an exemplary character, and a
comforting instance of the inflexibility of humane.prineiples
under affliction."
According to the New York Times, the steam-vessel
Lafayette has left New York for Havre, with 6,000
cases of Remington breech-loaders, several million rounds
of ammunition, a number of revolvers, some provisions,
and upwards of 250 recruits. In spite of a protest on the
part of the German Consul, it was found " that there
did not exist sufficient legal cause for the detention
of the vessel," and, as regarded the pretended emigres,
a couple of Prussian spies failed to identify any of their
number.

The prisoners who were led out from Strasburg were ill
excellent condition. Few of them were wounded, and
almost all looked as if they had enjoyed good fare and bad
little to do. But it seems certain that the stock of food
was.exhausted. A German paper notices that nearly all
the.prisoners had a new pair of shoes on. There was
doubtless a good stock in the fortress, and General
Uhrich most likely came to the conclusion that they
might as well be on the feet of his men as in the hands of
the besiegers.

The works of the Germans before Strasburg are very
extensive. Although constructed in a few weeks, they
are said to form a perfect maze of ditches, shafts, galle-
ries, and passages, some above and some underground.
The whole is as large and almost as artistic as a mine
which has been worked for years. To enable the soldiers
to find their way in this labyrinth of lanes, the
various trenches, &c., have had names given them,
posted up like street names at house corners. Each
trench is provided with caverns for the soldiers to sleep,
dine, and rest in, special excavations of greater preten-
sions, in the way of moss beds, straw, carpets, and stump
seats, being to the officers in command.
The Cologne Gazette and the ludependance Beige are both
of opinion that there still exists some underground com-
munication between Paris and the provinces, as dispatches
are daily received from Paris by the Government dela-
gates at Tour.

The vote for the French Constituent Assembly will
only occupy one day ; there will be no second ballot, and
the result will be known the same evening. The electors
will vote in the chief place of each canton. The place
of meeting of the Assembly has.not been decided upon,
but it is believed the Assembly will meet wherever the
seat of government is.

r THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH AT RHEIMS. The
Independance Belge says that several papers have spoken
of the death of a great personage at Rheims, whose name
was kept a profound secret. This person and his aide-de-
camp were struck in the carriage by the free-shooters at 3
short distance from the town, and neither of them survived
his wounds more than 24 hours. The deceased person of
most importance appears to have been the Duke of Nassau,
and it was his coffin covered with gold cloth, and escorted
by 3,000 Wurtemberg soldiers, which passed through Tael
some days back. The prince in question must have been
Adolphe William, of Nassau, who became reigning Duke
in 1839, and was a general' of the Prussian cavalry, and
commander of a regiment of Westphalian Lancers.

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