The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-12 00:00:00

THE' MILrFARY SITUATION,

A French despatch from Metz, dated August 11, B.r>o
a. m. , says that up to that time there had been no engage-
ment. It rained in torrents during the night. Thl4 spirit
of the troops is said to be admirable.

The London correspondent of the Manchester agardian
says :—" Government are in tosseskion of the most
momentous news, it is said, from Paris,' to which they feel
precluded from giving publicity. The ordinary service of
the telegraphs throughout the empire has been suspended
by order of the Empress in Council ; and it is presumed
that the ambassadors of foreign Powers are allowed to
transmit information in cipher to their respective Govern-
ments, upon the honourable understanding that it shall be
treated as confidential.

THE BATTLE OF WOERTH.

NANCY, TUESDAY,

It is extremely difficult to obtain any trustworthy in-
telligence of the great fight that took place at a village
near Hagenau on Saturday. But abundant evidence is
forthcoming on every hand to show that the battle was
most severe, its results most disastrous. All the country
from Saverne to Luneville, which lie between this place
and the field of battle, is strewn with the d4bris of
Marshal MacMahon's shattered corps. The entire
district is in a state of frightful confusion.
The terrified inhabitants are flying hither and
thither. Some of the richer have actually gathered to-
gether their possessions and gone. Everything betokens
the land of a beaten nation, and the advance of a victo-
rious invader. The loss to MacMahon's corps was great,
both in casualties and prisoners. Not less great is the
damage to discipline andmorale. Not much more than one-
half the corps holds together. The enemy has captured
many, many are dead, and a very considerable number
are wandering about the country without arms or equip-
ments, disbanded to all intents and purposes. In short,
the army of MacMahon is suffering from a fearful
defeat —a battle most valiantly contested and utterly
lost. Immediately after the fight MacMahon
retreated to Saverne, but thence he has fallen back, and
Saverne is now in the hands of the Prussians, who are
said by the terrified inhabitants—and the news is but too
likely to be true—to be rapidly coming on. Among the
soldiers who are disorganised, and among those who still
keep their ranks, there is but one cry ; they have
been betrayed. Wretched dispositions have ren-
dered vain the utmost efforts of gallantry. There
can be little question that MacMahon fought well
on the actual field of battle. His dispositions seem to
have been fairly good, and his personal exertions
were most exhausting. It is reported that
he was wounded, and the story is pretty
credible which says that he placed himself in repeated
danger of capture. He erred, however, in giving battle
at all. He had no force which could have a reasonable
chance of resisting the immense army of the Crown
Prince. Overwhelmed on every side the. French were beaten
back by sheer weight of fresh regiments.. Still worse
were the procedures of the centrarstaff and the commander-
in-chief. The most ordinary precautions were left to
take care of themselves ; the neglect was incredible.

ADVENTURES AFTER THE BATTLE OF

SAARBRUCK.

Grave troubles befel the correspondent of the Times
after the battle and during the retreat. He was hur-
ried along with a flying mass of soldiery and vil-
lagers, passing the most heart-rending scenes of suffer-
ing and desolation. They were driven away from Metz;
and left that town on their right. At length,the writer,
his servant, and a French gentleman entered a village—
name unknown,—where they got some refreshment.
They were interrogated by a captain of dragoons, but
thought they were getting off safely, when suddenly they
were seized by a mob of villagers and pinioned. as
Prussian spies. "It was in vain I protested
that I was an Englishman, my servant that-he was a
Swiss, and our French companion that he was not only
French but an officer of their Garde Mobill Nothing
would satisfy them ; my complexion, the shape of my
moustache, and my whole app4iance were; as they said,
entirely Prussian—and that wal enough to condemn all
three of us. As for my being an Englishman, said one
of my guardians, who clasped me in an embrace not made
the pleasanter by the large amount of garlic which had
evidently seasoned his last meal—as for my being
an Englishman, that, in his opinion, did not mend
matters much ; " ni Prussien ni Anglais" was to be found
in this Alsatian village under penalty of rough treatment,
or perhaps la lanterne. Matters looked rather ugly at
one time. They dragged us up the street, and at last
some one got a torch, and they looked at our papers.
Probably none of them could even read his own language,
ao this move was not particularly in our favour.., An
intelligent bystander then suggested that we should
be taken to the Mairie. Some were for this step,
some against it ; but at last, in the middle of this
swaying,'shouting, execrating raQb, we found ourselves, to
our relief, hustled into the presence of the Maire. With
him was seated the Maire of Forbach, who had effected
his retreat from the town before the entry of the Prus-
sians. He was a wide-awake, sensible fellow, understood
our case at once, and, what was better still, managed to ,
make the Maire of the place (a very owlish-looking old
man) comprehend it. The latter expressed himself satis-
fied, and told the mob, who had burst with -us into the
room, that we were all right and "dans nos droits," that
they must leave his house, and let us go on. our way

in peace. The mob hesitated, and it was not till the vigorous
man of Forbach had harangued them, abused them, and
threatened them with a formidable cudgel which he car-
ried, that they grudgingly retired. In a few minutes
after we continued our journey, and passed out of the
village, and some mile or so along the road, without in-
terruption ; but our adventures were not yet over for the
night, for soon after we were stopped by a body of men
who had evidently been waiting for us, being, in fact, a
detachment of our captors from the previous village.
They again surrounded us with the same cries, but
apparently did not consider themselves in sufficient force
(seven to four) to lay upon us violent hands. The Make
of Forbach was still with us, and as we marched along he
displayed a great power of invective and a large command
of language of more force than refinement, but all to no
purpose, for our escort still surrounded us, and we fore-
saw another scene at the next village. Of course,

it was inevitable. Notwithstanding the hour (it
must have been about two in the morning), the
villagers in the next place we entered were all in the
street, discussing, no doubt, the rumours of the war and
of French disaster, though they were not yet aware of the
great defeat which their army had just unstained. Re-
ceiving this intelligence for the first time, seasoned with
the statement that we three before them were Prussian
spies, it may be imagined that the reception they gave us
was rather warm. However, on this occasion we were taken
straight to the Maire, who was fortunately a friend of
our Forbach ally, and who accepted us, on his state-
ment, as free from any suspicion, announcing his decision
to the mob. They were not satisfied, and a fierce war of
words arose between the Forbach Maire and the " leaders
of the people." From words they got to blows, and there
in the Maire's kitchen, before the Maire himself (who
smoked the while, looking on with a glassy eye), there
was a spirited personal encounter for about a couple of
minutes between an elderly but vigorous champion of the
people of the place and our doughty friend. Nothing
could be more absurd. Apparently, we were destined
this day to pass through all the gradations

intervening between ,the sublime of ,tragedy and the
broadest bourgeois farce. But this ebullition cleared the
atmosphere, and the people went away and left us in
peace at last." The writer continues his narrative of
seizures and narrow escapes, detailing three or four more
arrests. At last he was finally disposed of at Metz, in a
manner which shews clearly that' the occupation of
special correspondents is gone :--"A General, whose
name I did not catch, but who was extremely polite
and kind, conducted it in the most gentlemanlike way,
expressed himself perfectly satisfied, regretted the incon-
venience we had been put to, pointed out
that 'we had ourselves to blame for getting
into the, scrape,- and.. finally requqted me and my
servant (our French friend was not a-rested on' this
' occasion) to leave he town that' night, 'under pain of re-
arrest and unpleasant • ciinsequnces. I produced my
commission from the Times. He said he had a great
respect for England and for the Times, but that
my expulsion was not exceptional, that every alien what-
soever, be he journalist or tourist, was sent away ; that
the French journalists also were expelled, and that even
Frenchmen, not inhabitants of Metz, were forbidden to
remain in it ; that the same rule would be enforced in all
towns within the area of the war ; and, in short, that I
had better go to Paris by the seven o'clock train, which
would give me an hour or so for dinner at the buffet under
the superintendence of a geLdarine."