The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-02 00:00:00

THE GARDE MOBILE OF VITR Y.

The Journal de la Marne gives a terrible account of the
rout of the Garde Mobile at Vitry. The worst news
respecting the Garde Mobile of Vitry have, it says, arrived
at Chalons. According to the information received there
was at first an intention of defending Vitry. At
the moment when the Prussians arrived it was determined
to send forward the battalion of the Garde Mobile towards
Chateau Thierry. The battalion was composed
of young men from the arrondissements of
Vitry and Sainte Menehould. At the same
time the cannons which guarded the ramparts
were spiked and thrown into the fosses. The Prussians,
who are always well informed by their spies of what goes
on in our midst, became aware of what was passing and
arrived abruptly at the town. Instead of remaining
united and compact, the battalion of the Mobiles
divided. One portion,of whom we have no exact intelligence,
appears to have resolved upon following the route pre-
viously arranged. The other part, which was composed
of gardes belonging to St. Alenehould, wished to regain
their own arrondissement. On their way they were attacked
by a corps of Prussian troops. They flung themselves into
the woods in order to escape the attack of the enemy's
cavalry, of whom, however, they killed several. The in-
fantry drove them, and they fell upon the sabres of the
cavalry. The scene was frightful. Overwhelmed by
numbers, shat Of munitions, little accustomed
to the use of arms, the Mobiles wished , to
surrender as prisoners. But the Prussians would
not regard them as soldiers. They slaughtered
them at will, and falling upon those who were already
wounded, they cut them to pieces. Already fifty of
these Mobiles were killed or wounded, when
sevrr,l persons succeeded in convincing the head of ,
the detachment that he was really deal-

ing with soldiers, and the carnage then ceased. The
wounded were removed to Saint Menehould. Some of
them were in a deplorable state, having received twelve
sabre cuts. The savage conduct of the Prussians in this
instance has greatly exasperated the population.

AZAMAT BATUK AND THE " GAULOIS."
Under the title "La Revanche d'un Homme d'Esprit,"
the Gaulois makes amends to the war contributor to the
Pall Mall Gazette. It confesses that the writer in ques-
tion is not only a clever but an honest man, sincerely
sympathising with France and incapable of doing her
an injury. "Thus, the instant he returned to London,
instead of addressing invectives to us, he had the happy
idea of revenging the little vexation to which he had
been subjected by carrying into execution the following
philanthropic plan :—He arranged a lecture on the war,
spoke with eloquence and earnestness of the misery and
sufferings of the people of Alsace and Lorraine driven
from their houses by the terror of the Prussian;
and wandering through the woods, where they die of
hunger and exhaustion. That was the act of a man
of good heart, and at the same time of a man of wit.
If all English journalists resembled this contributor to
the Pall Mall, we should feel towards them only senti-
ments of grateful fraternity." The Gaulois then sum-
marises a report of the lecture given by " the Mama-
monchi of the Pall Mall Gazette," and thus concludes : -
" Such was the lecture of the able correspondent of the
Pall Mall. We may add that at this moment Azamut-
Batuk ' has boldly returned to France with the receipt of the
French ambassador, in whose hands he deposited the
proceeds of the lecture. This receipt, it seems, he- means
to show to the gendarmes if he is again arrested, in order
to prove that he is not an enemy of France disguised as a
reporter. A superfluous precaution. He is now in
France, and, as we fancy ourselves a polished
nation, which does not allow itself to be
beaten in courtesy, we will shew M. Azamat-
Batuk' that he has not put ungrateful people under an
obligation. For ourselves, we beg him to consider as not
existing our recent criticism and to believe in our feelings
o; friendly fraternity for the future. We only wish all
the rest of the staff of the Pall Mall Gazette were like
, him."

At the railway station of Verdun two millions of spoilt
cartridges have been found stowed away.
Heaps of gypsum were strewn by the French on the
battle-fields before Metz to serve as indicators of the
ranges of their various batteries.
The death at Mars la Tour of Henry XVII., Prince
Reuss, from a grenade shot, was instantaneous, his body
being torn in pieces and hurled to a wide distance.
Great disgust is felt in Paris, says a correspondent, at
the treatment of the Prince Imperial—hurrying the poor
lad about from place to place according to the retreat of
the French army.

The Paris correspondent of the Daily News says :—" I
was offered the house of a senator for nothing, if I only
would promise to occupy it for two months, and hoist a
Union Jack over it."

On the Alsace railways, which are worked largely by
the captured French rolling stock, the services of the
porters and signalists are retained, many of the latter
being women.

The Besancon journal Le Jour advertises a reward of a
million francs to the soldier who shall deliver King
William alive or dead into the Emperor's hands, and
100,000 francs for any other German Prince.
The Saarbruck journals report that already twenty
thousand wounded have passed along their rail-
way. In the space of four days last week ten thousand
wounded and prisoners passed 13ingerbrnek station down
the Rhine valley.
The account of the state of things inside the works at
Metz is pitiable. The town is filled with wounded ; hos-
pital gangrene, that dreadful addition to the torture of
the wounded, has made its appearance, and typhus rages
in the camps. There is likewise a scarcity of good food.
A remarkable proof of the bravery with which the
French held the field of Weissenburg against their assail-
ants the following fact will supply. The colours of one of
the French regiments engaged changed their bearer no less
than twenty-seven time& during the battle.
A number of the smaller telegraph stations in Germany
are to be closed, to set free 100 of their officials for service
in the field. The postal service'in Alsace and Lorraine is
being carried on as far as possible by the existing person-
nel, a declaration of faithful performance of service being
exacted.

The German press is thanking the Emperor for one
thing. The roads in all the country► districts are excel-
lent, and greatly facilitate the movements of the German
troops. These good roads have been mostly made under
the Imperial Government.
The Germans take every care to disarm the French
population of all districts through which they pass. The
inhabitants of Pont-h-Moussen were ordered to give up
their arms under penalty of being handed over to martial
law in case of disobedience. All assemblages are prohi-
bited, all doors and window blinds are to be kept open ;
the town to be lit up at night, every house to exhibit at
least one light ; troops marching through to be sup-
plied with water ; at nine at night all public resorts to be
closed.

The francs-tireurs have made their debut. They have
shot four men belonging to the 4th Cavalry Division near
Chalons. Instructions have been sent to the corps com-
manders to deal with them most severely—in other words,
they will be shot if taken with arms in their hands. No
doubt, says a writer, the French will retaliate, insisting
on the legitimate character of the francs-tireurs when a
levy en masse has been ordered, and thus we may drift
into a war of reprisals, which, again, may become a war
of " no quarter."

The correspondent of the Times with the Prussian
army quotes a private letter from Paris, which relates
that the Due de Gramont, who has taken to spending his
evenings at the Jockey Club, was lately asked there,
"How he came to blunder into such a fatal war ?" He
replied. " I asked the Minister of War, Lebceuf, if he
was ready, and he answered, ' Ready? Aye, and doubly
ready!' Otherwise," added the Due, " I should have
taken care not to have counselled a war which there were
twenty modes of averting."
The Agenee-Havas states that a great impression has
been produced at Vienna by the news of the backward
movement of the Army of the Crown Prince. The parti-
sans of Prussia could not conceal their uneasiness, for
they comprehend that each day's delay renders the march
of the Prussian army into the French capital less secure.
Letters from the Southern States of Germany declare
that in that region the audacious course pursued by the
Prussian army has given rise to general regret, and it is
feared that it may entail deplorable consequences.

Herr Wickede, the correspondent of the Cologne Gazette,
in describing the march up to and beyond Lune vile, re-
fers to the gloomy and angry countenances which fre-
quently encounter the German troops. Whereas in
Bohemia, in 1866, the country people were hostile, while
the towns' people sought to make terms with the invader,
in France it is the peasants who endure patiently the
fearful sacrifices imposed on them by the war, while the
inhabitants of the small towns are intensely anti-German.
Rural terrorism is assuming great magnitude in many
parts of France. "Everywhere," says a Vienne journal,
" the calumnies and the proceedings are the same. Every
democrat is formally accused of sending money to tho
Prussians. At Saumur the Municipal Connell has bad to
intervene in order that the house of M. Louvet might not
be desroyed; and it is kated that at Angers M. Segris's
house has been threatened. The most patriotic and
devoted men are the object of these senseless manifesta-
tions."

A German source is responsible for the following story :
—The French National Guards betray so much impatience
for fighting, that their men, keeping a respectful distance
from their enemies, have meanwhile commenced the
game among each other. In some of the Paris regiments
the Fivates did not approve of their officers, appointed
by Government : they therefore refused to shew them
obedience, selecting other officers from out of their ranks.
The Government officers not being willing to give up
their appointments, the consequence was a regular fray.
A letter in the Cologne Gazette says :—" The troops
of the advanced guard of the South have to endure
excessive fatigue. They keep still marching on like a
hurricane, repulsing the enemy wherever he shows him-
self. There are soldiers of the line who for eight or
10 days have not taken off their shoes, and have known
no bed since crossing the French frontier but a bivouac
under the open air in rain or mud. The horsemen hardly
ever quit their saddles, and the poor beasts, harnessed for
whole days together, throw themselves on the ground
nunediately on coming to a halt. They-are also at; thin

as cats, and many of them quite exhausted; nevertheless
the mass still holds on, particularly the horses of
Eastern Prussia, who have Arab blood in their veins,
and support the fatigue of the campaign better than any
other."