The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-07 00:00:00

IRE SUS, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1870

who was the officer in attendance on the King when he
was at. Compiegne. He was the bearer of an autograph
letter from the Emperar, addressed to His Majesty, and
written in no agitated hand. You already know the
terms Mon Frere,—N'ayant peut mourir h la tete de
mon armee, je depose mon epee au pied de votre
Majesty." This letter was immediately conveyed
to the King; who, with Count Bismarck, General
Moltke, and his Staff, was looking down from
a height above Wadelincourt' on the extinction of
an 'Empire. His Majesty's answer was courteous fond
firm, and meantime General Wimpffen was informed that
the terms offered to the army was the surrender of the
whole force, guns, horses, and material to the Prussians.
At ten o'clock the town was to be bombarded, and the
Frehch army around it to be shelled, unless the capitula-
tions were signed. It is stated that the scene inside the
walls and out WAS, to use a strong expression, Hell broke
loose," When the Emperor, who passed weary hours,
looked out in the early morning he beheld a forest of
steel and iron on valley and hilltop, batteries posted on
every eminence, cavalry in all the plains, as far as his eye
could reach the hosts of embattled Germans. • His deci,
sion was taken at last. He would see the King and seek
to obtain from him some mitigation of the terms.
Attended by a few of his staff on horseback, his

Majesty proceeded along the road from Sedan in a
brougham. Count Bismarck was in bed in his quarters
in Donchery when an officer rushed in and
announced that the Emperor was coming to meet him
and to see the King. Count Bismarck rose, dressed hastily
—you may be sure in the white-peaked cap with yellow
band, dark uniform coat with metal buttons and yellow
facings—and hastened off to meet the Emperor. He was
just in time to stop the cortege outside the town. I was
away on the field, and therefore cannot, of my own per-
sonal knowledge, state what occurred. As His Majesty
alighted I hear Count Bismarck uncovered his head, and
stood with his cap in his hand, and on a sign or
request from the Emperor to put it on the Count re-
plied, "Sire, I receive your Majesty as I would my
own Royal master." There happened to be near the
place where the interview occurred, a few hundred
yards outside the squalid town of Donchery,
the humble cottage of a handloom weaver, of whom there
are numbers around Sedan. Count Bismarck led the
way, and entered it. The room was not inviting. The
great Count walked upstairs, and found that the apart-
ment was filled by the handloom and appliances of the
weaver; so he descended, and found the Emperor sitting
on a stone outside. Two chairs were brought out of the
cottage. The Emperor sat down in one outside the cot-
tage, Count Bismarck took the other, and placed it on
his Majesty's left-hand side. The officers in at-
tendance on their fallen master lay down some
distance away upon a small plot of grass
in front of the cottage. The conversation was a strange
one, and as Count Bismarck has repeated it freely, or the
principal points of it, no doubt it will be soon known and
remain for ever as historic. The great point to be gained
was peace, but, as far as his Imperial Majesty was con-
cerned, no assurance of it could be obtained by Count
Bismarck. The Emperor stated that he had no power.
He could not negotiate a peace ; he could not give
orders to the army, nor to Marshal Bazaine ;
the Empress was Regent of France, and on her and her
Ministers must devolve negotiations. So Count Bismarck
thereupon remarked that it was of no avail to hold any
further conversation on political matters with his Majesty
and that it would be of no use to see the King. The
Emperor desired to see the King in person, but Count
Bismarck declared that it was not possible to accede to
his Majesty's wishes " until the capitulation had been
signed." "Then, as the conversation was becoming
rather dangerous, and as the situation was be-
coming difficult on both sides, we ended it."
The interview terminated. Count Bismarck went to
see the King. The Emperor withdrew to consult his '
officers. It was a stupendous moment. The garrison of
Sedan was furious at the idea of capitulation. But there,
in grim black lines, on every bluff and knoll, on every
ridge above the Meuse, on all the heights around, were
drawn, up the batteries which would rain a hail of fire on
the devoted town. Negotiations an. to terms went
on, and at last the modifications which the French
urged as to the- officers side arms. and parole were
agreed to. At 11.30 the capitulations were signed,
as agreed upon by General Wimpifen and General von
Moltke, and I believe. Count Bismarck took part in the
deliberations :—The garrison and army of Sedan to sur-
render as prisoners of war, to be sent into Germany; the
officers to be liberated on parole that they would not
serve against the King of Prussia in case the war goes
on; all horses, guns, and munitions of war to be given
up. The Emperor's detention in Germany was under-
stood to be a part of the stipulation. About
two o'clock the King, with' his body guard and
an esoort of cuirassiers, attended by the Crown
Prince and a staff of general officers, proceeded to a cha-
teau outside Sedan, and received the Emperor, who came
with his personal followers and staff in charge under
escort, which was ranged on the other side of the avenue
facing the cuirassiers. The King and his captive retired
into the glass house off one of the saloons on the drawing.

room floor, and they could be seen by the staff outside en-
gaged in earnest dialogue. After the interview with the
King the Emperor had a few moments' conversation with
the Crown Prince, in which he was much agitated when
alluding to the manner of the King. His great anxiety
seemed to be not to be exhibited to his own soldiers. The
result was, however, that his Majesty, wishing to avoid
one mischief, was exposed to a great humiliation, for his
course had to be altered to-avoid Sedan, and thus he had
to pass through, the lines of the Prussian army.—Cor-
respondent of the Times.

THE IMPERIAL PRISONER EN ROUTE.
(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
DONCHERY, SEPT. 3, 9 A.M.

The Emperor of France, a prisoner of war, has just
passed below my window through the main street of Don-
chery. It is raining in torrents, and a column of Wur-
temburg troops coming in the opposite direction blocks up
the way a little. The cortege is preceded by a troop of
Black Hussars in full uniform and uncloaked. Then
came a brougham with the Emperor. He wore a kepi
and the undress uniform of a Lieutenant-General, with
the star of the Legion of Honour on his breast. His
face looked exceedingiy worn—dark lines under his
eyes, which were observant oi what was passing around,
for he saluted an Englishman who ran out to see him, and
who raised his hat. By his side sat a French officer, I
think Achille Murat; but who could look at any one but

_ -
the one man, and it was only a glance any person with
good feeling would care to give at such a moment even to
him. The horses, all unconscious of the fallen estate
of their master, were worthy of the Imperial stables.
The two postillions were as smart as if they were in
the Bois or ea route for St. Cloud on a wet day.
They and the two who sat behind wore long wafer,
proof cloaks, glazed hats, and the Imperial cockade. As
the 'brougham was stopped for a moment my courier
caught sight of his Majesty's face. " What a change,"
he says (even allowing for the lapse of years), " since the
Prince Napoleon lodged in my house in London before he
went to live in King-street !" He had his hand to his
moustache, which had the well-known pointed and
waxed ends, but there was no nervous twitching visible,
and the emotion which shook him for a moment
when he was speaking to the • Crown Prince
yesterday of the kind manner of the King had
passed away. Then he brushed the tears from his
eyes with the gloves he had in one hand, and was over-
come for several seconds. After the brougham came a
char-ec-bane, with Normandy percherons, filled with
French and Prussian officers together, mostly cloaked,
with hoods drawn over kepis and caps. Among the
latter were General Boyen and Prince of Limars, who
are appointed to wait upon his Majesty. Some ten or
eleven Imperial carriages, chars-a-bane, fourgons,
with superb horses, filled with officers, followed,
then some French officers on horseback, and
after a long string of saddle and renfort horses,
ridden by grooms, 60 or so in number, the rear being
closed by a troop of the same Black Horse. I shall leave
it to others to moralise on the spectacle. I shall not say
a word about fallen greatness. Every one will be ready
with the trite saying, "No one cried ' God bless him !' "
The French men and women who stood out in the rain
certainly did not venture to shew any sympathy or sor-
row, if they felt any. The only sound was the tramp of
horses and the inopportune jingling of the bells of
the char-à-bane horses ; but now and then a chorus was
sung by the Wurtemburgers trudging through the mud,
celebrating the victory in which; so far as they are con-
cerned, they had, they doubtless regret, little to do. The
Emperor is on his way to Wilhelmshohe, in Cassel—
Schloss Napoleon, some say it has been called ; and, as he
expressed a wish not to be shewn to his soldiers, the Prussian
Government applied to the Belgian authorities for per-
mission to pass him through their frontier with his guard
and escort. As both countries agree, there seems no
reason to object to the proposal; but,.unless M4zieres
has surrendered, it is not easy to understand how the
Emperor can get on the road he has taken to the
Belgian frontier, as M6zieres is right on the line of
march.

THE EMPEROR'S JOURNEY THRO UGH
BELGIUM.

The ex-Emperor of the French on Sunday travelled
through Belgian territory. About five o'clock on Satur-