The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-06 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1870,

' A. "Little Comedy," so bizarre of its kindly as to
be almost farsical, played in between the fourth and
fifth acts of a grand and awful Tragedy—that is
precisely what we have just now had intervening
in this affair about BOURBAKI. The scene is
alternately in France and in England. The hero and
heroine of the piece are historical characters—the
Empress Regent EUGENIE and the gallant soldier in
command of the imperial Guard, General
BOURBAKI. When the curtain rises, it is at Hast-
ing. There the EMPRESS and the Prince IMPERIAL
have just arrived as refugees. To them enters a
mysterious stranger, "M. or N. as the case may be,"
according to the familiar phrase in the catechism.
All that we know of him as yet is that he is M.N.,
that is, M. and N. for once rolled into one.
Affecting to be, and it is just possibly being (for his
real motives as yet were simply incomprehensible) an
enthusiastic partisan of Imperialism, Monsieur
N. endeavours to draw the Empnitss into
a quasi-diplomatic negotiation in the carrying
out of which this officious intermeddler was
to act at once as agent and as messenger.
Failing in his endeavours, M. N. provides himself
with a simple photographic carte de visite, according
to one account, a profile likeness of the PRINCE
IMPERIAL, according to another account, a vignette
view of the imperial residence at Hastings, and
armed with this, and with a suspiciously authorita-
tive passport through the Prussian lines around
Metz, M. N. worms his way into that impregnable
fortress, where he forth with obtains an interview with
those three still unconquered military chieftains of
the imperial army there shut up—Marshal BAZAINE,
Marshal CANROBERT, and General BOURBAKI.
Deluding all three into the belief that he,
the bearer simply of a photograph signed by the
Prince IMPERIAL and of a passport signed by Count
von BISMARCK, was a diplomatic negotiator fully
authorised at one and the same moment by
the EMPRESS and by the Prussian Prime Minis-
ter, or Chancellor of the North German
Confederation, M. N. actually induces General
BOURBAKI to quit Metz, dressed as a civilian, and,
after threading his way with safety through the
Prussian lines, to hasten across the channel to Eng-
land to have an audience with the angust lady there
in exile, and whom he still regards as his Sovereign,
M. N. himself diverging southwards in order to go back
to Count BISMARCK. General BOURBAKI presents
himself to her Majesty the EMPRESS, to her very
great astonishment in her present place of residence
in Kent, Camden House, Chiselhurst. Then comes
the eclaircissement—it is all a hoax ! Dismayed at
having forsaken his post of danger, bewildered at
having been brought into this unaocountable dilemma,
General BOURBAKI appeals to the Earl
GRANVILLE so far to intercede for the
vindication of his - (Bounnmas) imperilled
honour as a soldier, as to obtain him a free pass
through the German lines back into Metz. That
chivalrous request has been as chivalrouslSr responded
to. BOURBAKI is again at the head of the Imperial
Guard inside the fortifications of Metz. There the
last banner of Imperialism still floats, defended, among
all the gallant army there at bay, by no more daunt-
less soldiers than Marshal BAZAINE, their chieftain,
and his two gallant lieutenants, Marshal CANROBERT
and General BOURBAKI.

' THE contrivance of the balloon post has dissipated
the apprehension that Paris during the siege would
resemble an island in the midst of an impassable sea,
cut off from all communication with the outer world,
and all intelligence of the events passing within it
denied to the rest of the French people. The
science of ballooning is not so far advanced
that aeronauts can guide their vessels
whittler they will; but with a fair wind
they can easily sail across the German lines, and
descend in some place not occupied by the invaders.
During the last few days many letters have been
received from Paris, and a regular balloon post is
established. These missives as yet have brought no
intelligence—quite the reverse. Life
very alarming
in the French capital, as described in the balloon
correspondence, is decidedly humdrum. In-
formation on , Some important particulars
seems carefully withheld ; but we learn
enough to shew the fallacy of certain vivid specula-