The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-03 00:00:00

Tirki SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1870.

NEWS FROM RHEIMS.

According to the very able special correspondent of the
Temps, writing from Rheims under date the 31st August,
we read that two days previously the Crown Prince had
his head-quarters at Sariguy, midway between Monthois
and Vouziers. His Royal Highness was then installed
in the house of M. Douray the notary. During the course
of the morning he received three despatches in rapid suc-
cession. Of these the two first were received with appa-
rent indifference. On the arrival of the third,
however, ' he seemed, on the contrary, to be pro-
foundly moved, and gave his orders for in-
stant departure.- Although;ifcontinues M. Gustave
Isambert (the Temps correspondent just referred to) the
Prussians have occupied without resistance four of the de-
files of the Argonnes, and are in a fair way to dispute the
fifth, that of Le Chesne, very good positions are still hi our
hands on this side. The village of Voncy has not been burnt
as was announced to me yesterday. Flames had been
seen in that direction, but they arose from the destruction
of a grove of trees hard by the country-house of M. L4on
Robert, formerly one of the popular representatives.
This wood was destroyed by the French artillery to the
fire of which it was an obstruction, and where since then
they have preserved an advantageous position. They tell
me of a combat, the news of which comes at the same time
from very different directions. A body of French troops,
it is said, planted upon the heights of Somville, caused the
greatest possible destruction to the German squadrons,
hurling them into the channels and reservoirs of 134r0n
then deeply flooded with IN ater—a dangerous point
situated to the north of the defile of the Chesne. and
which feeds the lateral canal to the Aisne.

To-day the workmen employed on the Eastern Railway
received orders to go and re-establish communications be-
tween Epernay and Chalons. Hardly, however,
had they quitted the station at Epernay when
they were warned by the cantonniers of the return
of the Prussians to Chalons. There are, it is said, from
1,000 to 1,200 Prussian horsemen between Chalons and
La Veuve. Upon this information a reconnaissance has
been undertaken by 200 of our soldiers, who left for this
purpose about four o'clock, taking with them a couple
of mitrailleuses. The first of these horsemen were met about
• 20 kilometres from Rheims at the station of Vez-Thuiay.
A little before arriving at the station of Petit-Mour-
melon they round the road .cut. They then put foot to
grenra and directed their course across the site of the
camp% The enemy's horsemen were still found in the
direction M the Imperial headquarters. Six discharges of
mitrailleuse were fired in that direction. Several of the
horsemen were dismounted and some of the horses killed.
The reconnaissance returned about eight o'clock with the
satisfaction of having disturbed the dinner arrangements of
about 1,200 enemies, who had ordered covers to be prepared
for them at the inns and eating-houses of Mourraelcrn-le-
Grand.

The day before yesterday a company of Chasseurs made
a reconnaissance at Amagne, a little below Rethel,but with'
small result, The PrUSSiallfi had taken their departure
thence about three o'c'ock. They had, cut the rails and
caused- great destruction to the lino of telegraphic com-
munication.. An attempt had also been. made to break
the viaduct of the Four Valleys between Amagne and
Salves. Happily, however, the mine had remained open at
both ends, and the effect had cousequently not been suf-
ficient to cause a serious fracture.

Yesterday I received a letter from Metz, under date
the 17th, whieh twitified to the firm tuttituide assumed
there by the population. My correspondent confirms the
accounts we have already had of the bad feet from
which so many of the enemy are suffering. After
having executed so many and such rapid movements with
a discipline and a pi ecision impossible to deny, many of
the soldiers have found it a physical impossibility to fol-
low on yet further. A medical man in this neigh-
bourhood has seen fully a score of these suf-
ferers at Suippes, all of them with their feet
so inflamed that they deemed it better to
treat them as among the wounded than as among the
prisoners.
P.S.—A letter received this evening from Dorchery
announces that the Prussians had experienced on the 28th
and 29th a serious defeat near the forest of the Marf6e.
The troops thus defeated belonged all of them t o the
corps of Prince Frederick Charles.
2nd P.S.—There has just arrived here another message
which is described as distinctly official, according to which
the troops of the Crown Prince had been crushingly
defeated near Monthois. The particulars as to the losses
appear to be doubtful, but the fact seems to be beyond
dispute.

A Prussian officer, who fought at Gravelotto, says :
" All the officers of the battalion are either dead or
wounded. Of the 1,000 men with whom we went into the
battle only 400 are left."
The Princess Clotilde has refused to leave Paris. To
an invitation to visit Italy, she has replied that she would
consider it as an act of weakness to separate herself from
the Empress and quit France under the present grave
circumstances.

The Staatsanzeiger states that the Crown Princess
intends making a long stay at Homburg, with the view
of devoting special attention to the numerous hospitals
in the neighbourhood of Frankfort. For this purpose
her Royal Highness, on Saturday, had a lengthened con-
ference with the Central Committee of the German
organization for the care of the wounded-
A correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, alleges
that, during the whole war, the French have only taken
734 prisoners, but no guns or stores of any kind, and so
recently as last Thursday week the 734 German prisoners
were turned out of Metz because there was no food for
them. He also reports that the Germans admit having
had 28,000 men killed and wounded in the battles of the
16th and 17th. ult.
M. Michelet has written a fetter to the Committee for
the Defence of Paris, in which he urges the members to
put a stop to military executions. Were time allowed
him, he says, twenty thousand signatures would be
attached to his protest besides his own. .M. Michelet is
of opinion that, no matter how conscientious the military
judges may be, their proceedings are conducted in great
haste, and more than one point remains obscure. He,
therefore, begs that those proceedings may be stayed.
A Saxon officer, very severely wounded, sought shelter
in the house of a peasant in the neighbourhood of St.
Marcel. The unfortunate man, exhausted from fatigue
and loss of blood, threw himself upon a bed and fainted.
Whilst in this state of helplessness the woman to whom
the house belonged deliberately gouged his eyes out with
a fork, and then left him to die a horrible death. He lin-
gered long enough to tell his fearful story to a Prussian
ambulance train.

One of the National Societies Officers visited St. Privat,
near Metz, a spot where a most violent struggle occurred.
He says :—" He says the church and houses are nearly
all destroyed. Picture to yourself a vast plain terminating
towards the horizon in verdant woods and luxuriant and
undulating pasture. In the midst a. heap of blackened
ruins, a farm hut, the insignificance of which
has saved it from total destruction. Gardens
trodden down, trees torn with shot, all around bursting
graves, rudely-constructed crosses, remains of bivouacs,
dead horses, broken tumbrils, arms, shakoes, uniforms,
ammunition barrels, in front of crumbling walls which a
few days since enclosed contented homes, sitting on bare

stones in the mute agony of deep despair poor women, to
whom laothing is left but the memory of a past. May God
save England from such a scerfe as this 1"