The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-08 00:00:00

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE LINES.

An English gentleman describes in the Eastern
Morning News his experience, and that of four
friends, in crossing the German lines from Paris.
They safely made the journey, which so few have
attempted, but not without exciting adventures. Leaving
Paris on the 22d, they passed the French lines readily.
The. German outposts presented much more difficulty, and
several attempts were foiled, but at length they advanced
half-way between St. Cloud and Versailles, where the party
were arrested. The treatment they experienced was rude.
They were put in miserable quarters, blindfolded, and
carried about from place to place, and though they
wrote a letter to the Crown Prince, they were
finally taken into Versailles as prisoners of war—to be
shot, as an officer comfortably informed them. The
writer says : Then blindfolded again, and in the same
style—prisoners behind and cavalry around—we made our
entry into Versailles. We could hear the crowd pitying
us. Pleasant, very I Found ourselves in a large court-
yard, and politely told we were prisoners of war, till
the war was over. Conducted into two rooms.
Sentries placed over us, one in each room. No
paper allowed ; writting forbidden. No communi-
cation with anyone. Pleasant, very ! We hear a
scuffle shortly afterwards, and three young and pretty
girls push the sentries on one side, and come direct to us,
They were English nursing the wounded in the Mairie,
and hearing that Englishmen had been arrested had deter-
mined to see us. Very indignant, they offer their services
and I write a strong note to Colonel Wolker, military
attache to the Prussian Court, and to whom the embassy
had recommended us to apply in case of difficulty. The
girls—bless. 'em—take the letter, and the colonel arrives;
makes us feel awfully culpable. Very wrong of us to
have left Paris, and still more to have exhibited a white
flag. However, promised to do his best and call again next
morning. Slept all five of us on the floor, but still slept
soundly ; breakfasted well and next morning (Sunday)
saw the colonel, who told us we were by order of the
Crown Prince, to see General Blumenthal. Nothing
more however till next day (Monday) when order arrived
for us to go to the general head-quarters. Escorted there
by officers and soldiers. Found the old general very
polite ; scolded us of course, said orders had been given to
fire at every one approaching the lines, did not know how
we had escaped ; regretted that he must order us to return
to England via Germany or Sedan ; told us it would not be
safe for us to travel alone, and that he should send cavalry
escort all the way to Belgium. Nothing for it but to grin
and bear it. Set out with two officers and cavalry. Pro-
ceeded about twelve miles, carriage wheel came off.
Dragoons sent to scour the country. Soon return having
found in the stables of the Princess Bacciotte's mansion a
splendid new carriage. We were told to put our traps
into it, and so leaving the old carriage on the road behind,
away we go, 58 kilometres that night. Slept in a bake-
house all together on the floor; in the morning felt like
baked loaves, but much too sad to be wholesome. Then
on changing guards each 30 kilometres, till we came
to a beautiful villa, the house of my champagne man.
Ordered us to take possession of the best rooms,
and the next morning on again, sleeping as we
could, sometimes in low and other times in high places
until we arrived on the Belgian frontier—thirteen days'
journey. Paris is armed to a man. The Prussians wi 1
have tough work to assault it ; but they will not try. I
gathered from all I heard and saw, that they trust to
famine to fight their battle. Until this compels the poor
Parisians to give in, they will fight desperately, but
against such odds. Such a magnificent army these Prus-
siays have, so full of gaiety and spirits, all well equipped,
and magnificently placed. Not a cat can escape from
Paris, every copse and tree almost sheltering Prussian
riflemen, 60,000 cavalry patrolling the country ; escape is
impossible, and the success of any sortie most improbable.
The end may be prophesied easily, it is a matter only of
provisions. Those eaten, all is over.

A SCIENTIFIC VIEW.
Mr. Conybeare writes an interesting letter in which he
explains his reasons for believing that the Germans will
soon attack in earnest, and that the first operations will
be on the South side and directed against Forts Issy and
Vanvres. The west side he considers strong, protected by
Mont Valdrien
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eriTnghethriatveprorthieorne
ofofrtmhse'riamn p fact,artsaat an average distance of eleven furlongs,
and which could be nowhere crossed by an enemy out of
easy range of the guns on the ramparts, a proportion of
which are naval guns of 8 inch and 9i-inch calibre, ' with
a range stated at three and a half miles, a statement pretty
well confirmed by the fact that the Parc de St. Cloud is
found to be everywhere within range of the guns of
Fort Valsrien, from which it is about three miles distant.

Fort Issy and.Fortilde Vanvres are much more likely to
be assailed. ThiS portion of the enceinte has been abun-
dantly recognised by the French a 4 the weakest point in
their armour, and they have fought desperately to
strengthen it. The five forts which form the exterior line
of defence on the southern side of Paris should have been
placed on a range of heights that run parallel to the
ramparts at a distance of about 4,000 yards, but being
designed in the pre-scientific days of artillery, they were
placed half-way between this range of heights and the
ramparts, so as to be completely commanded by the
former, and too near the latter to keep the enemy's shells
at a safe distance. To remedy this mistake General
Trochu had occupied this range of heights in force, and
was engaged in fortifying it when the Prussians arrived,
and after severe fighting, on the 19th of last month, drove
the French out of the position and occupied it themselves.
On the 30th the French again made a desperate attempt
to recover this range of heights, but were repulsed with
loss, and the Prussians are now fortifying it. Fort d'lssy
is unprotected by any fort to the west of it. The works
which the French were constructing for that purpose
at Sevres are now in the hands of the Prussians,
and when complete will be used in attacking it ; thus the
capture of Forts d'lssy and Vanvres would create as large
a gap in the exterior line of defence as that of any
three contiguous forts elsewhere. Fort de Vanvres
is a quadrangular work, and Fort d'lssy a pentagon,
both very weak of their kind, their bastions being
small and cramped, and having no demi-lunes between
them. Maurice, in his memoir, has calculated the theo-
i retie duration of the siege of a pentagon of this character
at fifteen days, and in this case the defence would be
greatly paralysed by the circumstance that these forts are
completely commanded by the heights of Clamart and
Chatillon, situated within Chassepot range 'to the south,
and where the Prussians are already entrenched. In-
deed, your Berlin letter of the 29th ult goes so far as to
allege that repeated surveys seem to have led to the con-
clusion that these forts are so near the city one the one
side and the hills on the other that they have no chance
of holding out against a regular siege, and when once
these forts have fallen, the villages of Issy and Vanvres in
their front, would afford cover to the Prussians to
within one thousand yards of the ramparts.
The map makes the height of the ground on
which both Forts d'lssy and de Vanvres are built 84
metres above datum, and the level of the heights of
Clamart at a distance 2,000 yards south of Fort d'lssy,
and that of Chatillon at 1,800 yards south of Fort de
Vanvres, at 160 metres above datum. These heights,
therefore, outtop the forts by 251 feet, within range of a
Chassepot or Gatling gun. The importance of the posses-
sion of these heights by the Prussians seems to be scarcely
realized in this country. M. Favre told Count Bismarck
that to give up Fort Valerien would be equivalent to
giving up Paris ; yet the highest point of the uneven
height on whichiFort Valdrien stands is only 161.3 metres
above datum, or a little more than one yard higher than
Clamart and Chatillon, and the latter height is 16,000
yards nearer the Louvre than Fort Val4rien. It has been
both affirmed and denied that the Prussians can from these
heights throw shells across the whole of Paris. It is cer-
tain that there are guns that would do this, but it may be
questionable whether the Prussians have got enough of them.
The height of Chatillon is distant from the ramparts
4,100 yards, with a range of five miles. This height
would command all Paris south of the Seine, and just
reach the Tuileries and the Palais d'lndustrie, and with
a range of 63 miles it would command every portion of
Paris worth mentioning, and batteries placed under cover

of the villages of Issy and Vanvres (after the fall of those
forts) would command the same areas, with ranges of
only 3 miles and 4-} miles respectively. Even the longest
of these ranges, from Chatillon (6i miles), is quite within
the powers of the more advanced guns of the day.