The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-14 00:00:00

tB7O.

that was only too well justified. Impressed by
the perilous state of affairs, the government
of National Defence thought it desirable to
concentrate civil and military power in my hands.
General Mazure was twice informed of this decision,' and
twice asked to give in his resignation, but took no notice.
In face of this resistance I could not slacken the autho-
rity I held from the only power acknowledged by
the nation, and I ordered the National Guard
to secure the person of a leader who rebelled
against the Republic. I appeal to the patriotism of the
army which should assist the National Guard in making
the law respected, but which should also respect disci-
pline. I will second its efforts to defend the country with
all my power, but I shall severely maintain discigline,
without which there is neither dignity in the command
nor safety for the Republic.—The Prefect of the Depart-
ment of the Rhone, and Extraordinary Commissioner of
the Republic,

CHALLEMEL-LACOIIR.

THE BATTLE OF METZ.

Fuller details of the fighting on the 7th of October, at
Metz, are interesting as shewing the severity of the
contest, and the resolute character of the resistance still
kept up. The fight has received the title of the Battle
of Maizieres. Bazaine is calculated to have had 60,000
men engaged ; the Prussians considerably more.
The origin of the combat appears to have
been a dispute about the possession of a little
place to the north of Metz called Ladonchamps,
which had previously been considered neutral territory,
but which the French seized on the 2nd of October, esta-
blishing a battery there. The Germans shelled the place,
and ultimately the French retired. The Germans at once
took possession and established themselves in considerable
force all around the village. The ground occupied was a
long valley which runs northwards from Metz to Maizires
(not Mezibres, be it noted). This valley, or trough, is
the alluvial margin of the Moselle ; it is fiat-bot-
tomed and about four miles wide. On the west
it is bounded by the low heights of Le Horiment, and the
villages of Norroy and Saulnoy. On the east it is
bounded by a lower series of bluffs, on which stand the
villages of Olgy and Malroy ; but between them and the
flat bottom runs the Moselle, infringing considerably on
the flat expanse just opposite Olgy. Across this bottom,
at the narrowest part thus formed, lies a series of
villages—the two Tapes and St. Wray, with Maxe and
Ladonchamps respectively slightly to the east and west
front. More or less, there were Prussian troops in all
these. Bazaine made his dispositions under cover of a
fog, and shortly after one commenced operations by an
attack upon Ladonchamps. This place was carried ; but
it was not destined to be the main object of assault, for
great bodies of French were thrown upon the villages of
the Grandes and Petites Tapes, St. Rdmy, and Maxe.
The 59th Landwehr held St. _Wray, and stood their
ground against an overwhelming number of
assailants, but were finally driven out with
great loss. A fusilier battalion of the 58th
occupied Grandes Tapes, and was almost annihi.
lated. Thus Bazaine got possession of the chain of
villages athwart the valley, but this was a position which
he could not maintain, for the Prussian batteries occupied
three sides of the parallelogram. Says the Daily News
correspondent :—" It seemed clear that Bazaine
would not have done what he had if he did
not contemplate something more. That some-
thing I have not the remotest doubt was a
sortie to establish connections with Thionville. His
tactics were well conceived. From St. Rau and the
two Tapes he kept the Prussian fire engrossed, both mus-
ketry and artillery. He sent forward from Grandes Tapes
great swarms of trailleurs, who fared extremely ill at the
hands of the Landwehr men. But, besides this, he massed
a great mass of men. There must have been nearly
30,000 men in all on the bank of the Moselle under
cover of the houses of Maxe, and he sent them
forward to cut through the Prussian environment
where it was weakest close to the river. The
moment was a critical one. The Landwehr had all been
sent forward againSt the villages, with the exception of
one brigade that was in reserve. But the Tenth Army
Corps had been crossing the pontoon bridge, and
massing between the river and Amelange. Their gene-
ral, von Voights, was in command of the day's opera-
tions, and he gave the order for several regiments to
advance. It was a sight never to be forgotten. First
came the Fusiliers, extending at a rapid run
into skirmishing order, and covering the whole
plain with their long thin lines. Then the dense columns
of companies of the Grenadiers, the bands playing, and
the colours unfurled—unwonted sight. But all the work
was not left for the infantry to do. The artillery left
the villages alone, and concentrated their fire on the ad-
vancing columns of the French by the Moselle.
Bazaine is singularly weak in field artillery,
and the only reply was from the sullen sides
of St. Julien or from the ramparts of St.
Eloi. But the mitrailleuse venomously sounded its angry
whirr, making the skirmishers recoil nervously as
they crossed the line of fire, and tearing chasms in the
fronts of the solid masses of which they were the fore-
runners. The artillery and the skirmishers were enough
for the French. The dense columns staggered and broke.
Through my glass I could see a continuous sauve qui peat
into the village of Maxe. But when they had once got
stone and lime between them and the Prussians, the Frencl

were obstinate, and would go no further. In vain the Prus-
sian artillery fired on the villages, advancing closer and closer
in alternate order of batteries with a precision and
rapidity that could not have been exceeded on Woolwich-
common. That obstinate battery in front of Grandes
Tapes would not cease, and the French tirailleurs still
lined the chaussee in its front. By this time it
was nearly four o'clock. A gallant captain of cavalry
pulled up as he galloped past me to swear at the
French for spoiling his dinner, which had been
ordered for four. Alas ! the captain will want no
more dinners. He had not gone a hundred yards to
my right when a shell from St. Julien fell and
burst right before him, and blew himself and his horse
into fragments. This same shell disturbed a hare, which
bounced from its form, and scampered across the battle-
field right in a line with the gun fire. The Landwehr
men roared at the sight amid the dropping
Chassepots, and but for the restraint of the officer I

believe that several would have quitted the shelter of the
entrenchments to go in chase. As we stood in this sus-

pence a staff officer galloped along the front line ^ with
- -

_ _ _ .......
orders for a general advance to take the villages by storm.
The advance he told me was to consist of four brigades of the
Landwehr, with two brigades of the Tenth Army Corps
supporting. In a few minutes more the command came

sounding along the line, and the men sprang from their
cover and went forward with that steady quick step
so characteristic of the Prussian marching. The

shells from the battery in front of Grand Tapes

;ore through the line, the mitrailleuse and Chassep ot

bullets poured against it their leaden hail, but still
the Landwehr, silent and stern, went steadily to the

ront.

I have been under fire many times, but I

never knew a more furious fire than that to which the
centre of this line was exposed. General von Branden-

stein, commanding the third brigade of the Landwehr,
was shot down as he rode close to me, and several of his

staff were wounded. At length the intrenchments were

reached, behind which were lying the shattered rem-
nants of the 59th and 58th Landwehr. The
fraternisation consisted in the cry of " Hurrah

Preussen," and then " Vorwirts immer vor-
warts," and the line threw itself to its front in a run.

The gunners from the battery, brave men and stubborn,
had barely time to run round the corner before the

Landwehr were upon them. The guns they left perforce,

In the villages the French had a last stand, but it
had been better for them that they had run away at

The Landwehr, with less of the conventional

warrior in them than the Line, are not so much inclined

:o give quarter as are the professional soldiers,

With many a Frenchman this afternoon the shrift

consisted of a bayonet thrust. They fought like devils in
the narrow ways of the villages, and used the mitrailleuses

with rare judgment and effect. But then there came the

steady inexorable stride forward of the Landwehr, the
bayonet lent force with that huge thigh and back power
which is the leading characteristic in an athletic sense of
the Prussian physique, and the villages were cleared of
all save victors, dead, and wounded.

The Bavarian General Van Der Tann has declared
that every man found in the interior of a wood or a
thicket shall be treated as a Freeshooter—that is, shot.
The Agriculteur of Luxembourg says that M6zieres ex-
pects to be again bombarded, and that the inhabitants
have been ordered to place casks of water in their garrets.

The Jesuit priests are meeting with hard treatment at
Marseilles. They have been detained for nearly a fort-
night, as political prisoners. They are compelled to pass
their time with common criminals deprived of most of the
comforts of life.

The Republican Government committed a strange
mistake just before the blockade of the city by the
Germans. The latter found in the magazines at
Versailles immense stores of oats, hay, and straw, which
had been accumulated there by the French. The
Republican Ministry had abundant time to remove them
from the 4th to the 18th. of September—on which day the
first Uhlan arrived in the vicinity of Versailles, and yet
they did not do so, though food for the cattle and sheep
in Paris is likely before long to become a great necessity.

German newspapers appear to enjoy freedom of publi-
cation only so long as they insert nothing disagreeable to
the Government. Several journals at Berlin have been
confiscated for copying from the English papers informs'
tiOn respecting the condition of the German forces before
Paris.

Upon Gambetta's arrival at Tours, a public electoral
meeting, which was being held, changed the order of the
day, and adopted some resolutions to the effect that tbe
assembly congratulated him upon his bold enterprise and
desired he should take the direction of affairs. The French
provinces would willingly confide to him the civil and
military Government of the Republic.
The Siecle says that the Maire of Dornbach not only
prevented the .Franc-tireurs from firing on the Baden
dragoons, but pointed them out to a strong body of the
Prussian troops, from which they did not escape without
much difficulty. He was afterwards arrested by the
gendarmerie of Schelestadt, and it is said hung himself
prison.

General .Ducrot is not the only officer who is accused of
breaking his parole. Many others, according to the
Cologne Gazette, have stooped to the most frivolous sub'
terfuges to escape the inaction on condition of which
they were given their liberty. Some are drilling the
Mobile Guards in private clothes ; others have gone t°
Algeria in order to set free a number of officers who, re•
placed by the officers on parole, will return to France to
fight against Germany. •
Whilst M. Gambetta was descending in his balloon, it,
became entangled in the branches of a high tree. Some();
the country people mistook the party for Prussians, 00-`
threatened summary punishment. M. Gambetta then
displayed the national .flag and waved it, calling out,
" Vive la Rdpublique 1" This was enough to convert the
country people into devoted friends, who lost no time In
helping the aeronauts to get down from their dangero.us
position. When they heard from Nadar who the OW!
traveller was, their enthusiasm was unbounded. h.'
Gambetta was much affected.

A soldier of one of the Prussian regiments of Fent,
Guards, who had distinguished himself so remarkably to
Sedan as to induce the King to bestow the distinguishing
honour of the Iron Cross upon him, and who had been
appointed to escort a train of wounded to Berlin, visited
the temple of Mercury there, the Exchange. His distinc-
tion secured him a hearty welcome among the curious and
inquisitive merchants, who listened to the tale of his
adventures more assiduously than to the brokers' offers
and inquiries. That all this admiration should not end in
words, a gentleman present proposed to make a collection
for the young hero, and after handing round his hat for
contributions, had the pleasure to present him with the
round sum of £3O, which the soldier accepted with tears
of gratitude for the unexpected, and, to him, very
considerable bounty.

VERY REMARKABLE INDEED.—A remarkable jai'
dent happened a few days ago in the French camp near
Coblentz. 'There are a number of Turcos in the prisoners
camp, and two were suddenly taken ill. The doctor was
called, and he came jnst in good time to deliver the
Africans of a little girl each. The doctor did not, .how;
ever, need to have recourse to the violent midwifery °I.
Vulcan, for the brave warriors turned out to be two young
women. It is singular enough that their sex should not
have been discovered sooner, especially under these cir-
cumstances ; however. while fighting with the bravest
d
marched to Germany, and encamped at Coblentz, they ha
never aroused the slightest suspicion of their being women'
—Continental Correspondent.