Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1870-10-06
How the People suffer in "A Great War.
TEL R.BIE ATROCITIES IN NORTHEASTERN FRANC
ISedan correspOndence \. Y. World.l

TEL R.BI.E ATROCITIES IN NoRfH-EASrERN FRANCE.
lsedan correspondence n. Y. World,l
The peasantry in this part of France and as
far into the interior as my information reaches,
arc absorbed in two occupations-they are fight.
ing with starvation, and getting worsted in the
conflict and they are arming themselves and
laying in little stores of powder and shot to take
their revenge on the Prussians when the invaders
begin to retreat. That they will retreat is the
firm faith of every French peasant with whom
have conversed. Jacques and Pierre do not ex-
actly comprehend how it has happened that the
invaders have not been driven back long ago;
they have vague idea that there has been
treachery somewhere; but that the tide will turn
ere long they have not the slightest doubt. The
Prussans, who know everything, are perfectly well
aware of the feeling of the peasantry, and they
have taken the most severe measures to crush
and COW them In every town and village they
hold and along the roads in various places, the
Prussian commanders have posted up notices
calling on all who have arms to surrender them,
and warning them that their houses will be
searched, and that any persons found with arms
in their houses will be shot. These notices were
not put up simply as matter of ferm-they
were meant to be carried out, and they have
been carried out. On the 9th of this month, at
Douzy, three peasants who had been discovered
with arms We're shot like dogs. The poor fellows
met their fate bravely, and their wives, who be-
held the murder of their husbands from afar,
not being allowed to approach, bore off their
dead bodies.
[From the London Standard.l
The Duke de Fitzjames, whose statement is
confirmed in its main details, by the independent
testimony of three correspondents of three of
our Liberal contemporaries, states that when the
Germans were advancing on Bazeilles the inhabi-
tants Z" donned their National Guards uniforms
and fought with the French army. The latter
being driven back, the Bavarans entered Bazeilles
:. and then commenced a scene of horror and
nameless excuses that must forever disgrace
4, ,a,, r,atr nt.,rsN iaf1y ha MS
formed a cordomround the village and set it OH
fire. large number of people took refuge i'll
their cellars and We're roasted alive. :. Out of a
population of 1000, says the Duke, .sbarely 30O
survive to relate how the Bavarians drove the
women and children back into the flames and
shot those who succeeded in breaking through.
There is not house left standing. A fearful
smell of charred flesh pervades the air, and
saw the calcined badies of the inhabitants on the
| thresholds of their own dwellings,
(From the London Spectator.l
The German armies seem to have sullied theil
hitherto noble reputation for humanity both il
| the cruel affair at Bazeilles, before Sedan, oil
which the fuller English accounts are very shock
/ ing, and in the treatment OF the defeated army
after the capitulaton. With respect to the latter
we have an elaborate account by correspondent
of the DAILY 1elegrdph, who is witness far from
prejudiced against the Germans, and speaks OF
| the treatment of the defeated army :. fal
worse than the result of any fight it has yet beer
my lot to see," though for the last fifteen YEAR,
l have visited the scene of every great engage
mont in Europe within few hours after it hat
taken place. Writing from Sedan, on Wednes
day, September Z, just five days after the capt.
ulation, he states that for the whole of that time
almost all the men of MacNIahons army, somt
$1,000, and all such of the officers as would no
| give their parole not again to bear arms agains
the Prussians during the present war-3,0io ou
/ of about 1000, al it now appears-had been lei
out in an open field. and wet with the heayl
rains as marsh, without the slightest covering
| huddled together like sheep, i'll space about IL
large as Trafalgar square, without an ounce o
meat and with only one hard biscuit per MAJ
for tiBO days consumption and half bis
cults for the whole five days-and though, as til
writer says the Irllssians troops round Sedal
had two good meat meals per diem. Many o
the officers had money enough, but ''tlie Prns
sian authorities would not allow their prisoner
even to purchase what they required" One o
the writer's acquaintances, an officer of nobl
birth, assured him that he was really starving
and devoured what food the writer procured fo
him out of his own carriage though not Mithol
first dividing it with his soldier servant, with III
veracity of wolf. The rain had been pour
ing down on these poor fellows almo=
without intermission ever since the Friday o
the surrender, they were as wet as if they ha'
been rescued from the water, many flushed wit
fever, hundreds hardly able to stand uprigh
with rheumatic pains, and many of the remaiDde
suffering from bad bowel complaints. He sa
some of these poor fellows marched off to tn
frontier. and asserts that "even the Frenc
officers, if they Jagged behind for an instant
were beaten with the butt-ends of their es
cort's muskets and roared at, forward, fol
ward.'" Weak. sick, suffering from dysenter,
fever, and rheumatism" they were compelled
move for ten miles at pace searly equal to ou
"double quick