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

THE SIEGE OF STRASBURG

The correspondent of the Telegraph with the besieging
force, writing from Oberschaffelsheim, August 26, says :
—" There are now one hundred and fifty-six guns (cannon
and mortars) en place, and ready to hurl destruction upon
the fortress and town ; three hundred more are close at
hand, as well as enormous quantities of ammunition. Of
Prussian artillerists there are six thousand odd, and the
Badenser are as numerous. The mere artillery force
of the besieging army is therefore considerably
larger than the whole of Ulrich's garrison. Every day
increases the gravity and terror of the position in which
the inhabitants of Strasburg, sorely against their will,
find themselves placed. The bombardment of Kehl may
have been sport to the Imperial Commandant, but it has
been death to them; for, since the commission of that
barbarous act, the town has no longer been spared in the
scrupulous manner hitherto obtaining, and doubtless
much loss of life, as well as ruin of property,
has accrued within the last few days to the
unoffending citizens. Kehl, or at least the force of artil-
lery serving the trans-Rhenan batteries, has taken its
revenge on the citadel, which has sustained serious'
damage since last Tuesday ; but the fire from this side
has, I fancy, done more injury to the town itself than to
the works surrounding it. At one o'clock this afternoon
Strasburg was on fire in ten places, and when I left the
outposts for my quarters at six p.m. the flames ,
arising from its burning houses were staining the
horizon with a mimic sunset ; over Ruprechtsau,
which has been very roughly handled, hung, a
sepia-coloured curtain of smoke, completely hiding the
Baden mountains from view, and swallowed up in its
dusky bosom shell after shell cast into it by " Toby,"
while, ever and anon, a bomb would prematurely bUrst,
splitting the dusky vapour into ragged morsels, with
edges of livid light. Very little village burning was
transacted to-day by the French, who confined
their attention principally to the new batteries that had
sprung up during the night in trenches not further
than eighteen hundred yards from their walls; but even
upon these their fire was spasmodic and badly maintained.
The Germans, on the other hand, poured a constant rain
of missiles upon their enemies throughout the day. I
counted the shells pitched into the town and works from
the six batteries, within my own immediate range of eye- I
sight, during one quarter of an hour; they numbered one
hundred and nine, or rather more than seven per minute. To
obtain an approximate idea of what Oven 'nth a bombard•

meat as this means in the way of horror anddestruction,let
your readers picture to themselves the probable
effect of the hundred shells projected within au
hour into the parish say of St. Marylebone,
although the district is considerably larger thau
Strasburg crashing through the house roofs,
exploding in the streets and squares. killing
women and children in their beds, burning Pr;
vate residences to the ground, maiming an
wounding harmless people of all classes. .1°
aggravate these inflictions to anything like the
really hideous conditions in which the Strasburgers
are daily living—and dying in numbers—still further
grievances must be added to the imaginary spectacle of
bombarded Marylebone—namely, butcher's meat at five
shillings a pound, bread a shilling a loaf, butter, milk'
cheese, and vegetables not to be purchased for their
' weight in gold ; the most simple articles of 01;
sumption only obtainable at sixfold their normal
prices, and these rising daily, almost hourly
The lot of the unfortunate Strasburgers is truly harder
than they can bear; indeed, it was rumoured to-da
at headquarters that the mayor, at the head °f
a deputation of citizens, had waited upon General Ulrich
yesterday, to urge upon him the surrender of the fortress,
stating that the citizens had already suffered more than
their share of hardships, and would not submit to their
continuance ; upon which it is said—though I oaniot
believe it—that the General took up a revolver
from his table, and shot the Burgermeister dee'd,
upon the spot, " to correct him of his treason
That such an outrage upon civilisation should have
been perpetrated by a French officer is simply incredible.
All I can advance in excuse of its mention is that
I heard of it from a person the accuracy of whose infer
mation is generally unquestionable. Of one thing, lic'v'fr
ever, you may be positively certain—viz., that the
population of Strasburg is so dangerously 014'
perated against the garrison and its commander
that General Uhich's perils from within xre
nearly as redoubtable as those menacing
from without. Yesterday morning the Bishop cd
Strasburg came over to the Prussian outposts an
asked for an interview with the General-Commanding'
in-Chief (Werder), stating that it was his earnest
desire to intercede with his Excellency on behalf of the
minister in particular and the non-military part of tbe
town in general. The Bishop's request was cominunP
cated in due course to the General, who, however'
declined to receive him, but informed him, through
aide-de-camp, that every possible precaution would he
taken by the German army to avoid injuring the
cathedral, and that no more harm than could ~.e
helped would be done to the town. His lordsla
was escorted back to the gate of the city, and at the
same time a parlimentaire was sent in to General 'Ulrich',
conveying to that officer a full and detailed account e'
the reverses sustained by the French armies before
Metz, and urging upon him the surrender of the fla
tress upon the ground that further resistance vow
only be spilling blood to no purpose, the defence °f
Strasburg against the forces gathered round it being
absolutely hopeless. To this communication the Gene;
ral only condescended to return the verbal message 01/.
"he meant to hold Strasburg as long as he bac'
man under his orders ;" and the French fire was at once
resumed by way of post-dictum. So poor Strasburg,
(which is mainly Protestant, by the way) did not Pr°,,h'
much from the well-meant interference of its Catholic
Bishop. The French during last night's tic'
mendous contest, fired chiefly shrapnels, of which the
sent a large number into the German lines, hu.,
to little purpose ; fortunately their practice 147,
vnusually bad. The loss in killed and wounded °'
our side was, therefore, comparatively to theirs,
unimportant. One Baden infantry soldier was killed by
Chassepot bullet a little in front of Konigshof, and sc3:
buried to-day in_ Wolfisheim churchyard. About
dozen men lost their lives in the trenches, and tbr:
times as many were hurt ; but the results of tott
night were satisfactory beyond the hopes of the rc,,
sanguine. A shell dropped into a battery of
10th Prussian Artillery, and burst between vv.;
of the mortars, but, by a piece of good fortulci)
nearly akin to a miracle, not a single mau in the tree
was *Owed. To night several wore batteries will be IVII
in position (about thirty mortars and guns, as I hear), and
those already available will keep up the bombardment 7.
through the night. In fact, the siege operations will
pressed forward with the utmost despatch, as the besiesgc;
ing army is exceedingly anxious to capture the Play
before the end of the war.

TUE KING OF PRUSSIA AT GRAVELoTTE.-411
King had been for ten hours exposed to the enemy's
and about this time had taken a seat near a garden 0
close to Rezonville. A large worsted spinning factor" WA
on fire, and illuminated the Royal head-quarters. 4,0
ladder, resting with one end on a pair of scales, with
fi
other on a dead horse, formed the seat of his Majestl,4,
whose company there were Prince Charles, the Grall,,
duke of Weimar, the Hereditary Prince of Mecklenbn,
Count Bismarck, Minister von Roon, Count DoenkTe
&c. Truly, never was a Royal court kept in huraPew
quarters. The deepest silence reigned. No one knroo
yet how the day would close, when suddenly )3? a,
Moltke, excited, heated, gasping for breath, apprettlo
and cried : "Your Majesty, we have conquered !
enemy has been thrown from every one of his position:d
A loud and repeated " hurrah !" was the response. theft
now the Royal party, all life and cheerfulness, began
supper, consisting of whisky and plain brown sold'
bread.—Continental Correspondence. g Of
ARRESTING A SPY.—Paris, with the symptornio
the war fever that 'consumes it on every side, bee°o
disagreeable in the end. I felt so yester
and ventured out o the Bois de Boulogne. 'of
lawns have been turned into pens, the Garden the
Love into a rustic Smithfield, and, but for :0,
forts and cannon-crowned ramparts that are ;roc/.
one might imagine himself at some monster cattle holde
I was just calculating how long the great city could to
out with such a stock before the time would arriv'S
serve up birds' nest soup and cutlet of horse, with eteo
rat to follow, when a shrewd fellow approached 131,,
very shrewd fellow. " War is horrible, monsieur. ato
agreed that it was very horrible. "I have seen 8°- '
and invasions," he continued, " aye, and Prussia °el
and he gave me a wicked glance. " Invasions !" °cborol
—the shrewd fellow could not be more than 45—" YIP
when?" "In 1815." "How old were you then?" ocl
reddened and stammered " four years old, and---01'
—your countrymen, the Prussians, came in by oot
lette." I saw how the land lay • his net was ahead), 01
to bag me as an emissary of the enemy. I anticilljet
him and saved myself. I laid my hand on his shon',ol
suddenly and told him he was my prisoner—that lle:d
the head of a. Prussian spy. You never saw a shr'etil
fellow look so black. His face lengthened and his °tile
chattered. I positively began to fear I had hit onto
real Simon Pure by accident; but 'he produced D.%°019,
paper for the fifth arrondissement, and after nun-ofto
examining it I told him he might go, but to be 0r
how he left his own quarters again. I mean to tak.toi,te
own advice to this clumsy amateur detective, and pr°
you I shall not revisit the Bois de Boulogne while rd.
has its war paint on.—Paris Correspondent of Standar

pelf
THE POPE AND THE WAR.—It is posia • the
denied that the Pope ever offered his mediation t°,
King of Prussia and to the Emperor Napoleon vv"f 1
tet
view of inducing them to suspend hostilities just it.;,13
they had broken out. Thus the correspondence nic.
has recently appeared cannot be regarded as autbenoo
The Governor of Rome has ordered all persons who bolo
resided in the city for less than three months to ob
authorisations to stay there.—Birmingham Gazette. 01
RELIEF OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED.—cctl'w
Loyd Lindsay has written to the Times another veil the
teresting letter descriptive of the efforts made bysa
Society for the Relief of the Sick and Wounded. eoII
that at the close of this week there will be forty sungl.oo
on the field or in the hospitals serving under the Red Lici
The condition of the French wounded accumulat,e,4
Luxembourg is described as terrible, and that couoniveo
made the base of operations. The assistance to be glthe
to the wouuded from Luxembourg will be chiefly t°
French, who are described as abandoned by friends `-
foes.
181.101 ;
THE LADIES OF MANCHESTER AND TH.. •
—The Mayor of Manchester presided at a meeting
ladies held in the Town-hall on Wednesday, to fr;eo,
committee for the purpose of receiving lint, band
and other articles snitable for the relief of the sick
at t
wounded in the war. It was stated that at the Inn-'llOl
the convalescent patients had already made uP ott
miles length of bandages, composed of old lila°ll, war.
calico, and that it had been forwarded to the seat 0,1 stet,
The contributions paid into Heywood's bank,MatLeL`e
since the formation of the committee a week sloe'‘,
amounted to £1,700,

BIRTHS.
On the 30th ult., at Torquay, the wife of J. Dun
Esq., of Carron Hall, of a daughter. ° 0
On the 30th ult., at Wimbledon, the wife of Jav9e
Elles, Esq., of a daughter.
MARRIAGES.
Ato,rto
On the 27th ult., at Cheltenham, Captain Cunliffe
Bengal Cavalry, son of Sir Renald Martin, „
F.R.S., to Frances Mary., only daughter of Thcft el'
Colledge, M.D., F.R.S., Ed., Lauriston House,
tenham. P"
On the 30th ult., at St. John's, Waterloo-road,.l
Henry, eldest son of William Blewchamp, of Ricreorge
Surrey, to Martha, second daughter of Alfred
Steere, of Richmond, Surrey.
DEATHS. Lod'
On the 30th ult., at 16, Prince's-terrace, Hyde-park,
don, Sir Thomas Montgomery Cuninghame, Bart' v 54.9
On the 31st ult., at Barnes, Surrey, Bolton CorneY,
M. R. S. L., aged 87.

of
London : Printed by GIDEON ACLAND BOY let
No. 112, Strand, Printer, and Published by L'; be
THE SUN Office, No. 112 Strand, in the Precinct
Savoy, in the County of Middlesex.
Friday, September 2, ISTO

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