The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-23 00:00:00

REINFORCEMENTS FOR THE FRONT.

Writing from Bordeaux, December 17, the correspon-
dent of the Telegraph says :—General.Bourbaki, who is in
command of the army at Bourges (the First Army of the
Loire, as it is called), writes to his wife at Bordeaux, that
in two or three days he will be able to assume the offen-
sive against the Prussians. The enemy has, for some
unaccountable reason, vacated Vierzon, and is
moving along the valley of the Cher upon Tours
—much annoyed, as we are informed by the pri-
soners and deserters, that the French Government
has managed to evacuate that town before the spiked
helmets could enter an appearance there. On the other
hand, a wounded officer from General Chanzy's force
(now called the Second Army of the Loire), who arrived
in Bordeaux to-day, tells me that the troops commanded
by that leader are holding their own at Marchenoir,
some twenty miles to the south of Coulmiers,
and have in, several minor engagements repulsed
the enemy, who had made some half-dozen at-
tempts to dislodge them. On the 15th instant a
brigade of Bourbaki's army, feeling for the enemy
to the north-east of Bourges, fell in with three
battalions of Bavarians, and repulsed them with great
loss, driving them back upon their main body at Gien;
At Havre, whence the enemy had withdrawn a day or
two ago, fresh Prussian troops have assembled ; and the
conflict there threatens to be very severe, for the French
have brthight together no fewer than 60,000 men, and are
determined to resist to the last. Nothing can be better
than the spirit of both troops and people in Paris, and itis
said that the siege is certain to last at least sixty days
from this time, if not longer. Trochu has, it is also re-
ported, done marvels with the Garde Nationale and the
Mobiles, who form the garrison ; and that they are now
preferable in every respect to the troops of the line. So
far as it is possible to gather from the War-office
authorities here, it seems that now Tours has
been, so to speak, abandoned, a most determined
push in two columns will be made upon
Paris ; and that even if Bourbaki and Chanzy
leave half their men in the field, they will
push on with the remainder. From Bordeaux,as from other
chefs•lieux des ilep•trt inents, immense bodies of the Garde
Nationale Mobilisee start every day for the front—l
should think not fewer than 15,000 men from La Gironde
must have taken their departure from here six days ago.
The warlike spirit of the people seems to increase rather
than to diminish ; and here, even more than at Tours,

it may truly be said that every man under
fifty years of age, as well as many beyond that
age, carries a rifle and is a soldier. By high and
low, but one single object seems to be aimed at—the
expulsion of the Prussians. The drill of these citizen
battalions is naturally imperfect, and hundreds of them
are altogether without that personal smartness and pro-
feesional neatness which distinguish the English and
other armies. But the men are "all there." They
have their hearts in their work. Morning, coon, and
even by gaslight at night, they are drilling. Work of
every kind is left to the women, to the married men who
are no yet called out, to the men who ere upwards of
fifty years of age, and to those who are not yet twenty ;
nay, even of these last not a few have taken arms, for a
legion composed of lads fm.n sixteen to nineteen years of
age has been raised, and is.busy at work drilling for twc
or three hours every, ;lay.