The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-30 00:00:00

THE FRENCH FLEET.

A Frenchman communicates some rather strange parti-
culars to the Telegraph. He writes from on board La
Magnanime, ofl Heligoland, August 20 :—The day before
yesterday a Prussian vessel, carrying the white parlia-
mentary flag, and having on board a rear-admiral and the
Prince of Hesse, accompanied by several officers, came to
the admiral's ship Magnanime, and were received by
Baron Roussin, the ship's captain and chief of the
squadron staff, while Admiral Fourichan remained
in 4...";i500n. I cannot question the truth of
my inticrtion which gives me the text of the
following conversation between the Prince of Hesse
and Baron Roussin. The Prince briefly announced
himself by saying, " Sir I am the Prince of Hesse."
To which the Baron replied, " Sir, I am delighted to
see you." After these preliminaries the following
opinions were expressed by his Royal Highness :—" You
cannot be ignorant of the incontestible success of our
armies by land; or if so, it is not my part to enlighten
you on the subject. I only wish to tell you that if you
continue the blockade you will have to make to the King
of Prussia a heavy indemnity, because you ruin our com-
merce." The baron simply replied that he did not think
France was as much compromised as the Prince told him,
at the same time assuring his Highness that he might rely
on the Admirl continuing the blockade until fresh orders.
There is no doubt that the real motive of this step was to
spy the precise condition and extent of ournaval force, to
know whether the Prussian fleet, which, by the way, is
daily augmented, could possibly present itself befere us.
One thing which seems to shew that these gentlemen have
a very good opinion of our fleet is that the Prussian squa-
dron keeps quietly ensconced in the Bay of Jande. Our
cruisiers fare well every day, making capital prizes,
especially several well-laden colliers. These latter
are invaluable to us, for we are constantly under steam,
ready to appear at at an instant's notice. Our sailors
burn to measure their strength with that of the enemy;
they are in excellent health and spirits. In fact, nothing
can be altogether in better condition than our entire
crews. We are perfectly provisioned, eommunications
being established by a regular steam service between
France and Heligoland, and soon I hope I may be in a
position to give you a good account of our adversaries.

THE LOSSES AT METZ.—The National Zeituny says
that on the 22nd the first batch of those who were slightly
wounded in the actions of Mars-la-Tour and Gravelotte
arrived at Berlin. They gave many details of the enormous
losses sustained both by the French and the German troops.
The division of cavalry of the Guards had been exposed to
the fire on the 16th, and its two dragoon regiments had
borne the brunt of the day's battle. It is reported that
these two regiments were directed towards a village which
was supposed to be unoccupied by the enemy's troops ;
but it turned out that strong bodies both of French in-
fantry and artillery were stationed there. The dragoons,
nevertheless, pushed on to the village, and lost nearly all
their officers. The Prince of Hohenzollern, serving in one
of these regiments, escaped only in consequence of being
sent by the commander of his legiment to carry a report
in another direction just before the attack took place.
Among the many distinguished officers who were included
in the casualties of this charge was Baron von Randen,
the husband of the well-known singer, Madame Lucca. He
was severely injured by being shot through the cheeks.
The loss of the French amounted, according to the
Staatsanzeiger, from the 14th at Courcelles, until the 18th
at Gravelotte, to 12,000 to 15,000 dead. If the prisoners
and the wounded be added, the total of those hors d e
combat amounts to 50,000 ; 4,000 of the French were
taken at Gravelotte alone. Until noon of the 21st, 6,000 I
prisoners had passed Pont-a-Mousson.