The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-08 00:00:00

BEAUNE LA ROLANDE.

This led to the battle of Beaune la Rolande, the opening
of the active campaign, and the commencement of a series
of disasters for the French—not wholly unbroken, it it
true, but still decisively against them. The best account
of this battle that has yet appeared is given by Dr. Russell.
He says :—The German outposts were attacked early in
the morning of the 28th by the advanced guards of several
French columns which debouched from the wooded
country in front. It seems remarkable that the cavalry
did not advise them of the coming attack, unless we
suppose that the country did not permit of their use,
and there is much wood, between Corbeille and the
Loire. The French shewad in such force that the Prus-
sian pickets were obliged to retire rapidly on their sup-
ports, which took up a position between Beaune and the
Montargis Railway, covered in front by a small brook,
and withdrawing the force from Corbeille altogether.
The French advanced very fast, and soon after 11 a.m,
they drew up in a parallel line, their main columns being
concealed in undulations of the ground. They soon
displayed swarms of skirmishers, who opened " a
biting fire " on the Prussian position. The Prussians,
steady soldiers, replied warmly, and held Beaune
obstinately. The French artillery, in the most gallant
manner, advanced at a gallop, and crowned a high mound
surmounted by windmills, which almost overlooks the
town, while several heavy columns of infantry prepared
to storm it under their fire. The artillery actually came
within 400 yards of Beaune, and seemed to riddle it and
the barricades at the entrance with. their shell splinters.
But the hail of bullets came thick from the barricade and
through the loopholed walls. General Voigts Rhetz, how
ever, could only hold his own. The French were in far
superior numbers. They began to extend to their left,

and enveloping the Prussian right it threatened t o cut it
off Pithviers, when Prince Frederick Charles was bringing
up supports in person. And sorely were they needed.
The French left gradually closed round more and more.
At one o'clock a mitrailleuse battery was established on
the very road to Pithiviers. It opened on the rear of the
hard set Prussians, while the shell and mitrailleuse bat-
teries on the windmill hill tore their front, and on three
sides they were girt in by a continuous fire of
musketry from the infantry, which Hartmanii's
cavalry in vain tried to check by frequent
demonstrations on the flanks. The position was
most critical. It was only the courage and constancy
of the men which rendered it tenable at all. General
Wedel, who had commanded at Beaune, sent to his chief
to say that he would hold it as long as he had a man left.
The town was on fire, but through smoke and flame the

white jets of the musketry fire spurted out, and rattled
through the roar of the artillery and the fitful grunts of
the mitrailleuse. Meantime, a sustained action was going
onbetween the two other brigades of Voights Rhetz's Corps
and a superior French force, but the superiority of the
Prussian artillery in open ground compensated for
numerical inferiority. In this state of affairs the French
suddenly pushed forward a great column to the assault of
Beaune-la-Rolande, down the road to the main street.
Men fell fast as they neared the barricade, but
the column still went on till it -reached the barricade,
where, greeted with glistening bayonets, it melted
away beneath the rolling fire. Long lines of dead and
dying marked its path, thickest where the crossing of the
brook caused a momentary delay, and gave a steadier aim
to the Prussians. General Voigts Rhetz was hardly
pressed, indeed, when he heard that the Red Prince was
close at hand, and presently his troops began to shew in
the rear, the Prince preceding them, along the Pithiviers
road. With steadiness and coolness, as if on parade, the
columns drew up and formed in order of battle across the
road, while 'thirty guns dashing forward covered a ridge
north of Beaune and opened fire on the French left. The
arrival of these troops turned the day. The French,
before they had formed up, began to withdraw their left.
They withdrew in excellent order, but not without consi-
derable loss.

THE SUPPOSED BONAPARTIST PROJECT.
The Presse of Vienna is highly indignant at the stories
about a contemplated Bonapartist restoration, which have
been current in the English, Belgian, and Dutch press.
Where is the idiot, it asks, who can attribute an official
character to any treaty between the King of Prussia and
Madame Eug4nie, and can talk seriously of a treaty which
shall unite Alsace, Luxembourg, Belgium, Rhenish Ba-
varia, and Hesse in a neutral State? The political
bankrupt at Wilhelmshohe may amuse himself with
these soap bubbles if he will, but it is scandalous
that journals like the Times and the Indhpendance
should allow themselves to be led into giving currency to
such absurdities, and encouraging the " cynical appetite
for a Bonapartist restoration." The Independence Belge,
in commenting on this attack, observes that it had no
intention of encouraging such schemes by publishing
them. On the contrary, it believes that publicity is the
best means of defeating them, by putting the public on
their guard. In such a case silence would be complicity.
The Independence does not consider the scheme feasible,
for it has full confidence in the patriotism of the French
army in Germany. Every day it receives fresh letters
from them protesting against the notion of a restoration
of the Empire by means of the army. At the same time
it attaches no importance whatever to the circumstantial
denials of the existence of a treaty coming from Wilhelm-
sijhe or elsewhere. It does not forget that eight days
prior to the political bankruptcy of December 2nd the
President, Louis Bonaparte, solemnly, from the tribune
of the National Assembly, denied the truth of the suspi-
cions of which he was the object, and protested against
against the accusation of preparing a coup d'etat, saying
he was the only man in Frauce who could not conspire
against the Republic, because he alone had taken the oath
to observe it.

A partial account of the German losses in the war has
been published in Berlin. It appears that the armies of
the Northern Confederation, of Bavaria, and Baden have
lost 77,387 men—killed, wounded, and disappeared.
There are about 1,500 Poles in Paris, and most of them
have joined in the work of defence. Many of them have
fallen in the sorties. A good many Poles, too, form part
of the foreign legion. Recruiting for the French army
goes on actively in Austrian Poland.
A German letter remarks on the capitulation of La
Fere :—"The little fortress, otherwise insignificant, was
important by reason of its position, and on the advance
against Amiens it would have been extremely inconvenient
to leave it with hostile troops in our rear. The French
commandant, Captain Planche, defended it with the
greatest energy, and only capitulated after thirty hours'
warm cannonade. The small town has suffered terribly.
Scarcely a house is uninjured, and the aspect of the place
indicates greater devastation than at Toul, Verdun,
Strasburg, and Thionville. Hardly any walls now resist
the force of the Prussian heavy fortress guns. Longwy
and Montmedy will now be seriously bombarded.
It cannot be helped, for the French can only
by the greatest exertion be brought to sue for peace at
any price. The population here are very dejected, and
long for peace."

A Ounious STORY.—The story of a new Joaii of
Arc has for some time been circulating in France. It
seems that the original of it is a young girl named Cathe-
rine Panis, who is a servant in the village of St. Laarent
de l'Ain, who insisted on going alone to Paris and Or-
leans, telling her employers that she had seen the Holy
Virgin, who had given her a message for the Governors
of those cities. She set off on her journey, and strange
to say, succeeded in penetrating to both places. She ar.
rived at Orleans the day after the French had recaptured
it, but we are not told how she got into Paris. She came
out, however, in the train of a sortie. The
authorities in Paris at first received her with
indifference; but, according to her own account,
they recalled her, and listened with some attention
the second time telling her to leave her name and address.
The most important part of the story is its influence on
the people in the neighbourhood of Lyons, who believe
that it is in consequence of Catherine's visit General
Trochu has ordered Masses to be sung in Notre Dame for
the triumph of French arms. Even the working men of
the Reds are confident of Divine interposition in their
favour.

GARIBALDI'S VIEW OF THE SITUATION. —III a
letter by Garibaldi to a friend, the Italian patriot says :
" I essentially belong to the people which I am for arming.
I quite admit that my present occupations are not alto-
gether in keeping with my principles. Enemy though I
am of capital punishment, and friend of peace and an
apostle of human brotherhood, here I am engaged in a
war which appears the antithesis of my aspirations.
But you must remember that, if I love peace, I hate
plunderers, and such I considered the Austrians when
they were in Italy, the Bonapartes and the Pope. I
applauded the Prussian King up to 'Sedan. He was no
robber then, and humanity should have thanked him for
delivering it from two of its worst enemies—the
impostor of Rome and his protector. But Prussia
appears to me now in the character of a
robber. She is either that, or drunk with victory ; and
attempts, in her intoxication, to tread under foot a
generous nation, which has done great things for the
advancement of mankind. I regard the Germans as my
brothers, and I trust they will shortly disavow their
leader, and help to build up peace in Europe, which all
nations long for. The French have found a renewal of
their vitality in their misfortunes ; and at this moment
there is hardly a Frenchman capable of bearing arms
who is not ready to take up a gun for the defence of his
country."
A NIOUT BALLOON,—An aeronaut who describes
his adventures in a night balloon, says that about a hun-
dred privileged persons were present when he started, for
the departure of balloons is not now made public as it used
to be. The Prussians got the information and sent incen-
diary fusdes after the balloons which exposed the aeronauts
to great peril ; the arrangements are kept as secret as
possible. At ten o'clock at night the party assem-
bled at the northern railway station which is
quite deserted, with the exception of a guard
who was wandering about with a lantern in his
hand thinking of other days when trains started
from thence to Brussels. The balloon was placed in a
large court yard, and the reflecting lamps of the carriages
gave it a strange appearance. The post cart drove up,
bringing the letter bags and the copies of the Official
Journal. There were five baskets of pigeons, who fed as
eagerly as if they were conscious of the great importance
which events have attached to them. On one of the
baskets was written " Pigeons, to be immediately directed
to Orleans or Tours." Great consternation was caused
by the announcement of the proprietor of the pigeons,
that he had fifty young pigeons at home he would gladly
sell to those who preferred them as food to horseflesh.
The indignation was a little abated by the subsequent
remark, that the pigeons in question were not fit for
carriers.

PREPARATIONS AT HAvRE.---The German occupa-
tion of Rouen and Orleans has created the greatest ex-
citement at Havre, where preparations are being made
to resist an attack. The following proclamation was issued
on Wednesday:—" Inhabitants of Havre,—By a rapid
march the enemy has arrived at the gates of Rouen.
Havre, more menaced than ever, but long prepared, is de-
termined to offer the most energetic defence. At the ap-
proach of danger we make a new-appeal to the patriotism
of the population. No sacrifice will be too great to repulse
the enemy and preserve our rich and valiant city
from pillage and the inroads of the foreigner. Sup-
ported by its energetic co-operation, we answer for the
safety of Havre.—Rallier, Commandant Sup4rieur ' • E.
Ramel, Sous-PrOfet Guillemand, Maire, Havre, De-
cember 4, 1870." The local journal, Le Havre, states that
an iron-cased locomotive made a reconnaissance as far as
Barentin, where the presence of the enemy's scouts was
ascertained: It was stated that a train from Dieppe to
Rouen on the previous evening had been fired upon from
cannon, and the guard killed m his box, a passenger also

being wounded. Two floating batteries, the Opinion4tre
and the Foudroyante, have been despatched to Havre,
together with a large body of marine artillerymen to
work the guns in position. The inhabitants of the
neighbouring communes are invited to take refuge, in
Havre, where large stores of cattle and fodder are being;
formed, and all articles which cannot be received, and
which might be serviceable to the enemy are ordered to
be destroyed.

A GERMAN REVIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN.--
Herr Wickede, an able representative of the Coloyile
Gazette, with the German armies, pays a generous aua
unexpected tribute to the exertions of the French nation
If we are to preserve a correct judgment towards the
enemy, and instead of designating that a crime in the
adversary, which is called in our own count
heroism and patriotism—as unfortunately too often
happens in war—we cannot deny that the French have
now developed in their third and it is to be hoped last
stage of this fearful struggle a degree of force and activity,
and at times a power of, sacrificing themselves, which none
of us candidly supposed them capable of at the beginnill
of hostilities. Paris, whose capitulation was announce
as quite certain to take place in November, has now sub'
'flitted for three months to the pangs of hunger and thirst
with resolute endurance ; and the Army of the Loire,
which was described as partly composed of an incoherent
mass of 'undisciplined men, which a few cavalry regimen°
could scatter to the wind, has manoeuvred under General
Aurelles de Paladine, with marvellous rapidity, and struck
us at Orleabs the first and only serious blow that we have
received since the war began. Had this Army of the
Loire developed such military qualities before the fall 0E
Metz as it has shewn to possess since, our position at
Versailles might have been seriously endangered, an°,
the army of the Crown Prince of Prussia would have had
to shew two fronts and fight against two different adver"
saries. Let France, however, now make ever so desperate
an effort, and let the patriotism of her people shine out
ever so brilliantly, it will avail her little to prolong this
cruel war, which is now conducted on our part with harsh
regardlessness of consequences, and sometimes, unfortu-
nately, on the part of some of the leaders, with a savage;
ness that can never be justified, and will never alter tie
final decision. France is completely vanquished 1)9
us, is entirely in our power, and must submit to whet.
ever terms of peace we choose to impose. This has been
clearly demonstrated by the events of the past week.