The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-31 00:00:00

THE LAST DAYS OF THE DEFENCE.

Writing previous to the capitulation, the special cor-
respondent of the Telegraph, in his letter from Head
quarters first army, dated October 24th, says : Some very
curious things are, and have been lately, taking place
here. First of all, as I believe I have already mentioned
the outposts, for the last four or five days, have not ex-
changed a shot. The outworks of Quevlen, St. Quentin,
and St. Julien have also remained perfectly quiet ; and,
with the exception of a few shots from Plappeville yester-
day afternoon, nothing has been going on either offen-
sive or defensive. But if military operations have for the
moment been at a standstill, diplomacy has not been idle.
On the 17th of this month Bazaine's aide-de-camp,
General Boyer, came to head-quarters ; on the 18th he
went to King William before Paris, and thence
to Wilhelmshohe ; on the 22nd he returned here,
and went into Metz ; and yesterday, the 23rd,
he came out again, and has gone on to Paris
once again. From his statement it appears that General
Bazaine is perfectly willing to surrender his army, but
that the commandant of Metz, General Coffiniere, will
not consent to give up the fortress. His Royal Highness
Prince Frederick Charles very naturally objects to take
charge of 80,000 or 90,000 soldiers, still hampered
with the condition of having the same battle to
fight for Metz. His answer is simple, " Metz, or nothing
at all." It is easy to perceive that 90,000 men must
be fed, and that, so long as they occupy a position
round Metz, that city must supply them with food.
This naturally reduces the amount of provisions, and
helps to effect much sooner the reduction of the fortress.
At the same time I cannot help thinking that Bazaine's
desire to surrender his army as prisoners of
war is a mere subterfuge to gain time, in order that
the negotiations now pending between the head-
quarters of the King of Prussia, and the French re-
presentatives may come to some definite climax. To
obtain this end, no doubt he and General Coffiniere have
put their heads together, and Marshal Bazaine thinks
that by an apparent willingness to surrender, knowing
that his terms could not be accepted, he may gain time,
and give his people rest, especially during this fearful
weather. In this, to a certain exteut, he has succeeded,
for we have had no fighting for five days ; on the
contrary, the utmost cordiality has existed be-
tween the outposts. They have talked to one
another, the officers have bowed, the men taken off their
caps, and made signs of friendship ; in fact, the same
sort of things exists as existed across the Tchernaya
during the armistice; but all this is now at an end.
Bazaine this evening has signified that diplomatic arrange-
ments are closed, and that he must have time to de-
liberate. Count von Bismarck has said that he can
listen to no more overtures, and his Royal Highness
the Prince has given orders for the army to
be under arms at 7 o'clock to-morrow morning. Mean-
time, the rain falls in torrents, the roads are knee-deep in
mud, and the men are suffering fearfully on both sides.
To-day some eighty more deserters were received, some
from the Garde Imperiale—the whole of which is still
in Metz. They tell you the same story—nothing to
eat ; yet they live on, and I must say the
prisoners look anything but starved. The 24th
' has, however, gone by, and Metz is still La
Pucelle; but Ido not see how she can remain so. The
fact is, Germany was not prepared for the curious
manoeuvre which France has employed for protecting her-
self. She defends herself in her fortresses. At this pre-
sent moment Phalsburg, Bitsch, Verdun, Thionville,
Lyons, Metz, and Paris are all in a state of siege. Metz
and Paris require a large army to blockade and to besiege,
and, although the Germans have more than 800,000
soldiers in the field, the peculiar posture of the
enemy compels her to utilise every man of them.
Under these circumstances it is not surprising that many
of these fortresses hold out—with the exception of Stras-
burg, Toul, and Sedan, not one of them, you know, has
capitulated ; and the three that have surrendered are the
only ones that have been bombarded. No doubt the
German army has taken every available gun to Paris,
for there is a lamentable want of heavy artillery else-
where.