The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-29 00:00:00

THE SIEGE OF PARIS.
The correspondent of the Daily News., writing from Oa'
headquarters of the Crown Prince of Prussia on Novem-
ber 23rd, says :—There is an expectation of news from

Orleans which relieves to some degree the absenci
of news hereabouts. It is supposed that Prince
Frederick Charles, the Grand Duke of Meeklen
burg, and General von der Tanu, are moving against
the Army of the Loire in such a way that it must
either beat a hasty retreat, or be obligel to fight
in a dangerous position--in a position where defeat would
mean utter destruction. If Aurelle de Paladine should

take example by Metz and Sedan he will avoid the snare.
But it is very likely that even in avoiding it he will lose a
good many of his rear guard. The city of Orleans will

be shut in on three sides so soon as Prince Frederick
Charles has crossed the Loire at Chateauneuf and
occupied St. Aubin on the Vierzon line. There
will then only be the side of Oozier and Illois by which
the French can escape, and even this line may be threat-
ened by a forced march of the Grand Duke of Mecklen-
burg to the southward. The notion at headquarters,
however, is that Aurelle de Paladine has his men so well
in hand since his recent success that he will venture
to retreat under the eyes of the Prussians, and

;he recapture of Orleans with a brigade or
wo of Frenchmen will be the only immediate result of

this masterly concentration of troops on the Loire. It
will be the only immediate result, but it will leave Paris
once more without hope of relief. When the siege began '
the capital of France seemed quite abandoned to its
fate. The French armies had been destroyed or hn-
prisoned, and Paris stood alone. Then Gambetta escaped
in a balloon, and the wonderful energy of the man
gave new life to the provinces. Garibaldi appeared on
the scene, Keratry roused his friends of the western
coast, and Bourbaki took the command of the north. I
doubt whether any country in the history of the world
has rallied in suen a way as has France during this last
autumn. Certainly no country has ever had more able
and determined invaders. The race has been one of
giants, but the German has outstripped his oppo-
nent, and towers over him tremendous as before.
The new armies of the French are borne back by troops
from Metz, the new works round Paris are faced by the
great works of German skill, and Paris must again for
a time stand almost alone on her defence. Happen what
may elsewhere, the great city is the prize which will
not be relinquished. By force _or famine the

Germans must enter its gates before they turn
their steps homewards, unless it can resist until
France has put out all her strength. This last possibility
seems to me very slight. I do not go so far as those
who wager that by the Ist of December Paris will have
fallen. But I doubt whether Trochu will per-
suade the people to fight for more than a month
without meat, and the meat—even the horseflesh—is to be
clean gone by Christmas time. So says every report and
rumour from the city. "No meat after Christmas"—that
is the tone of them all. Horses and donkeys, beasts
from the menagerie, and tame domestic cats will then
have disappeared, and Paris will be limited to bread and
wine. She has plenty of these two things for two months
longer than the meat will last —so says many-tongued
rumour. But when the diet of the city is reduced
to bread and wine, the people will demand to be
led against the enemy. Being duly led, they will be, in
all likelihood, driven back with loss. Then they will lose
heart, and cry out for a surrender. If the German
leaders did not look for some such programme as
this, they would push on the attack by force, would
bombard at least the outlying defences. But they
reserve their fire, and prepare to repulse a sortie,
It is said that they feel confident of being attacked before
the end of the month. Everyone is ready, night and day,
to start up at the first alarm. The great restless mass of
armed men and women and children, which lies in the
centre of the circle of steel, is carefully watched. Who
/ can tell what despair may not attempt?
THE BELEAGUERING LINE.

The Daily ails correspondent at the Headquarters of
the Crown Prince of Saxony, at Dugny, writing on
November 22nd, describes the strength of the besiegers'
line, and remarks :—Each of these old-fashioned villages
surrounding Paris is all but a fortress in itself. The walls
are of great thickness, and there is so little wood-
work that shells will not fire the houses. This
Dugny, for instance, might be held by a hand-
ful of resolute men against all corners. Its
streets—if streets the wall-bordered roads can be termed—
are so many covered ways affording safe passage even
under a hot artillery fire. The farmhouses are built like
citadels, walled in on all four sides, and with the windows
looking inward. Some of them are even loopholed. A
few judicious barricades are all that is needed as the com-
plement of the defence. These, it is needless to say, the
Prussians have not neglected. In Dugny are some of the
' most artistic barricades I have ever seen—in
fact, barricade is hardly the term for them—constructed
as they are of stones taken from the ch,aussee, faced with
a deep slope of earth, and capable of protecting
their defenders from the fire of the heaviest ar-
tillery. Their appreciation of the axiom that water
is a better barrier than earth the Prussians have
shown by effecting an extensive inundation between
Dugny and Le Blanc Mesnil. Into greater detail Ido
not consider myself justified in entering, but thus
much the French must be able to see from their own ob-
servatories.

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