The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-21 00:00:00

MISERY BEFORE THE CAPITAL.

Mr. G. M. Ludlow sends to the Spectator a letter from
a Frenchman, who is in the midst of the German lines
before Paris. He portrays a woful picture of misery.
The following are some extracts:—" At present, in gene-
ral, provisions are distributed to the soldiers, but we have
always to add something, sometimes a great deal, and
wine always. One Prussian eats as mull as four
Frenchmen at least. Our poor commune is set
down by this time for more than 80,000
francs in requisition on the budget. About 6,000
francs worth of wine have been taken from the
houses of absentees. Wood is now becoming scarce, not
through real, evident want, which could be met, but
through the longing for destruction. They light fires to
roast an ox for making their coffee. At my cousins' the
gardener gave them wood ready sawn, and faggots ; no,
they must break doors, furniture, tools, to throw into
the fire ; and it is said that these men are our superiors
in civilization ! No,—they are strong, they are marvel-
lously organised; this war has been Prussia's dream for
two generations, They are revenged for Jena and for
all the past victories of France. But their mode of
making war is the calculated refinement of ruin and pillage.
Should you complain to their officers, they often answer
with the utmost politeness that they are very sorry ; that
it is not soldiers of their corps who have done the mis-
chief—but it is never their soldiers, always those of another
regiment ! As to the deserted houses which they have occu-
pied, nothing can give an idea to those who have not seen it of
the filthiness, of the mania for destruction of these heroes of
Strasburg and Metz ; broken mirrors, wainscotings torn out
and burnt, &c. I thought the evil was at its height at
the second invasion ; the fourth has come, and they are
picked troops, the Landwehr of the Guard, all married
men of from 25 to 40. Individually they are very well, but
as a body they will have done more harm to the country
than all the rest."

30th October.

" Frightful weather. Almost continuous rain. Still,
a farmer told me that in ploughing the soil is very
hard yet at the bottom of the furrow. On the other
hand, there are many places in the plain of Velizy, be-
tween Meudon and Chaillon, where the plough has to be
turned aside in order not to turn up the dead of the
19th September. Three days ago a Prussian,
coming back wet to the bone from the trenching work
now going on towards Chatillon, was looking melancholy;
a friend of ours asked him if this navvy's work suited
him, if hp would not rather return to his Eihop at "jam-
burg. " C) yes; war is a sad thing very sad I But to dig

ditches in the mud, and to cut with a spade through a
comrade's body, that is horrible ! to see the head sepa-
rate itself, livid and hideous, from the spit of earth which
has not yet decomposed it !' . . . A whole file of diggers
exhumed almost at once a row of corpses, here and there
French, but by their own avowal many Prussian. It was
found necessary to cover up again at once the horrid
remains and to change the line of the trench. The officer
who lives with us took good care not to give us these
details, but the soldiers are more willing to speak. Yethe
himself allowed that typhus had broken out alter their
stay on that soil ; some deaths have occurred already."