The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-16 00:00:00

THE COMING SORTIE.

The special correspondent of the Telegraph, in his letter
from the Royal Headquarters, Versailles, November 9,
previous to the engagement before Orleans, says :—We are
on the eve of great events. In all human probability
the—French—Army of the Loire will attack the German
forces stationed between Orleans and Chilteaudun to-
morrow, or at latest next day. A single
French success would do a great deal towards
prolonging this hopeless war; of course it could
be but temporary, and would exercise no lasting
influence over the fortunes of the campaign ; but it would
raise the spirits of the French, and lead to an enormous
loss of life—and that is just what the King is most
anxious to avoid. Why is this army apparently—and to
some extent really—so inactive about the reduction of
Paris ? Because the King will not hear of a single
man's life being wasted, knowing that the capital
mast fall through exhaustion, and preferring to lose
time rather than soldiers. Should the Bavarians and the
22nd Division suffes a reverse, and the Army of the Loire
push ahead vigorously, we may have a curious time of it
between two fires ; for it is to be supposed that Trochu's
great sortie, which we have been expecting in vain for a
week, will come off with a will so soon as Paris hears
the thunder of French guns in our roar. All this is
somewhat pessimistical, and I confess I do not
believe in it—in the first place, because the new
French armies want commanders ; secondly, be-
cause Ido not believe them able to cope, even at the
odds of two to one, with the veteran legions of Germany ;
and thirdly, because, judging from their behaviour
hitherto, they are sure to lose time, even if they obtain
a slight success, and a delay of forty-eight hours in
following up their victory will bring Frederick Charles
down upon them like the Assyrian. That the position of
things is looked upon here as serious, is very certain ;
the best proof that it is so may be found in the fact
that, though' we aro by no means too strong in this
neighbourhood, two divisions, the 4th and 17th, have
been sent off to support Wittich at Chartres. The
French are reported near the river Ozane ; and an
august personage expressed this morning a strong opinion
to the effect that the fighting would commence to-day.
Fortunately there is •plenty of cavalry to keep up
the communications between Chartres and Orleans ;
and Prince Albrecht will have his hands full—just
what he dearly likes. We eipect to be giving and taking
hard knocks, too, within the next two or throe days ; for
Trochu has been chewing his teeth every morning since
Saturday last, though nothing more. Fifty or sixty
battalions have been marched out and exercised daily
under Valerien, and have kept us on the alert, to the
great tribulation of the advanced posts and supports.
Last night was a lovely night for a sortie—thick fog
and bitter cold; if the French knew their business, which
they do not, they never would have missed such a chance
—the Russians never did in the good old Crimean days.
Before you get this—confound those wires I—you will
have heard of many wigs on the green. Nobody here
doubts that rho fighting in the South will be bitterly
hard work. Three days hence it will be too late.
To attack now would be good generalship on the part of
the French, with a fair contigency of effecting a brilliant
fait d'arnies ; to make the attempt when Frederick Charles
is within reach of them will be sheer madness, sure to
result in the utter rolling up of their hastily col-
lected forces, and the final deathblow to the hopes of
Paris.

The latest Perla papers announce the arrest of M.
Flourens, who was taken without difficulty'while walking
in plain clothes in the Rue Menilniontant.

The Standard learns on undoubted authority—not that
of a correspondent—that the amount of sickness in the
German army before Paris is very great, " dreadful "
indeed.. All reports to the contrary are erroneous.
M. Rochefort was met at a theatrical performance in
Paris the other day by M. Jules Ferry. The former,
after resigning his place in the Ministry, had concealed
his residence, and had been lost for some time. M. Ferry
entreated him to come back to the Government, which
was ready to receive him with open arms. The appeal
did not succeed at the time, but it is believed M. Roche-
fort will come back.

A large number of Engliph people remain behind in
Path, feeling that it would be useless for them to leavo,
as they had no means of assisting themselves on their
journey to this country, and no friends to help thorn on
arrival. These unfortunate people are mainly indebted
to Mr. Wallace for means of subsisting, this gentleman
giving as much as £5O per week towards their main-
tenance. They are about 560 in number.

There exist at the present time in Paris two private
companies foimed for-working the balloon postal service,
The director of one of these companies was until lately
the well-known M. Nadar, -but, he having resigned, two
other aeronauts, MM. Dartois and Yon, have become the
managers. The other company is under the management
of MM. Julei and Eugene Godard. A third company
was started for-the conveyance of passengers by balloon,
but the schemd seems to have been abandoned.
Dr. Fussell rrites in the Times :—" lam sure there are
many officers iVho think the. siege of Paris is a gigantic
mistake. It *mid have beep more easy to obtain peace
and what thek"viant, it is safd, by using the troops, now
hold inactive as an investing "force round Paris, in grand
military promenades all through Franco, and crushing
armed resistance north, south, east, and west, so as to
leave the capital, if it held out when no strong place was
left to resist, as a bonne bouche for the last concentrated
effort of tliq'army 4 (cur aise."

THE RECAPTURE OF ORLEANS.
. • TUB BATTLE OF BACON.

The Timeicorrespondent at Tours, writing on the 12th
on the subject of the first French triumph, remarks :
The " Battle of Bacon " will sound rather oddly in
English oars as the title of the first French victory ;
but the name matters little if the fact be beyond
dispute. Bacon is a small village about 14 miles to
the west of Orleans, but, judging (ruin the circum-
stances of the affair, so far as they aro as yet known,
the principal fighting must hive been farther north.
You will have seen by my yesterday's letter that I
was not very Sanguine of its having been quite so great a
victory as the Government, in its natural desire to
inspirit the troops and the'people, would fain have had it
supposed, and what I have since observed justifies that
misgiving. Elie Germans, finding their positions at and
near Orlearfe insecure by reason of tho converging and
flanking movements of the Army of the Loire, evacuated the
town, and then retreated northwards before very superior
forces, abandoning in succession positions temporarily
occupied, but which there was no intention of retaining.
This is not exactly the impression conveyed by the
French offiCial accounts, from which ono would rather
infer that Orleans had been attacked and taken. The
GovernmenA,- however, has been moderate in its state-
ments, and it has been left to the papers to magnify be
yond measure the results obtained. Thefirat statement of
the Prussiari, loss, sent by a sub-Prefect, was 3,000
men, an intrenched camp, and nearly 100 carts
of provisioils ant: forage. To-day we are told that
the Prussiaii7. loss "(avarian, more correctly speaking,
but the French. Say .riussian as we should say German) is
6,000 killed and wounded, that in the various combats
spread over tirrep, days. there were altogether moo° hors
de combat, and4ii.aodtliough the weather was wet, 1,800
prisoners are said t4ave been made. Besides these, it'
is added, the people of Orleans took 500 Prussians, who
had not time to escape. Tho French had 100 guns
engaged, each one of which fired about 140 rounds.
Several of the enemy's guns, it is said, were taken by the
Mobiles of the Sarthe. Many Bavarians aro reported
to have let themselves be made prisoners, " weary of a
war they disapproved." Finally, says the boastful
Mon4eur, " it is undeniable that the Prussians keep their
infantry as much as possible, out of action, because, in
equal numbers, it is no match for ours." These
French journalists are really incorrigible, but their
brag no longer, deceives Enrol their own country-
men. The truth will prove to be that that the
Germans left a certain number of sick and wounded
behind them at Orleans, and they probably also lost a
certain number of men, wounded or not, in their retreat ;
that they lost two guns, perhaps those stationed on the
bridge at Orleans ; and if the French really fired 14,000
rounds from their artillery, and if their practice was
pretty good and their fuses better .cut than in souse
former actions of this war, the loss of their retreating
enemy in killed and wounded ought to have been
considerable. The French seem to have fought well, and
they certainly had the best of the affair, which is calcula-
ted to encourage the troops. But it will be of little value
unless followed up. We learn to-day that Von der Tann
is being reinforced, and it is the business of the French
also to increase their strength. This, I believe, they are
doing. Troops have gone to Orleans from Nevers and
other places, and, if I may believe what I hoar from
sources I have generally found trustworthy, General
d'Aurelles has not less than 150,000 men under his
command. It is believed that he intends taking up
strong positions somewhere to the north of Orleans, and

there awaiting an attack. If so, his generalship will soon
be tested.

A STRANGE GERMAN ESTIMATE.

The ingenious style in which the North German Gazette
represents the recapture of Orleans as a positive disadvan-
tage to the French is worthy of note. It says : "We
remarked yesterday that General Aurelles de Paladine
would soon find himself obliged, by the general strategic
dispositions of the German commanders, to retire without
a blow to his former positions, and the sudden arrest of the
advance of the army of the Loire may be regarded as fore-
shadowing the accomplishment of this intimation. The ques-
tion now is whether it will be possible for that army to'escape
unscathed to the lower Loire and behind that river. Admi-
rable precision and foresight on the part of the Germans
have prevented the French from inflicting a defeat on us
through their momentary superiority, for, with a rapidity
which will be fully appreciated by strategists, an imposing
force has, almost simultaneously with the appearance of
the more considerable hostile force, been concentrated
some miles behind the first position. This dispels the
slightest idea of our positions before Paris being endan-
gered, and, with these premises, it may be expected
that there will be no delay in arresting the Army of the
Loire wherever possible in its retreat, and in thoroughly
curing it of any inclination for further demonstrations."