The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-12-09

following interesting resume ofform-
or sicges of Paris:
While the world waits in listening
expectation for the thunder OF the
guns that arc to rain down fire and
hail upon the faircst capital III Eu-
rope a recollection of the horrors OF
the past sieges of Paris may help TO
quicken the perception of the terrible
nature of that which may be TO como.
We know the city in IFS beauty and
lis pride its silver thread of river
glistcning between the broad Quays
that line its banks: its trcc-planted
boulevards, gay with the life OF pleas
ure that found lis centre there; its
wide streets and stately architecture;
its monuments Of art; its cathedral,
churches, palaces and theatres Its
fragments of antiquity heavy with
eight hundred years OF time; It's
Champ Elysees and Bots de Boulogne:
its pleasant gardens and promenadcs
where a light hearted crowd, gather
ed from the four OF the Garth
sauntercd leisurely under the clear
sky of summer, as if peace were cier-
nal. But the picture has changed.
At such a crisis of her fortunes,
the student of history may naturally
turn to the records Of former siegcs
of Paris to see how she has stood this
ultimate trial OF her fortitudc in the
past. A writer in the current NUM-
Der of the Contemporary RertcU has
done so in a well written narrative,
showing both knowledge of his sub.
icct and good taste in its treatment.
It will be sufficient 10 pass over with
a mention the first great siege OF
Paris, by the Normans, when Eudes
Count of Paris. his brother Robert
and the Archbishop Gozehn saved,
by their heroic efforts, the city which
the imbecile Charles the Fat aban-
doned to its fate. The event was a
great nc. 1t decided virtually the
fate of the Cariovingian dynasty i'll
France, and it is im~mortalized under
a thin veil of fiction, in the great
poem of "Ariosto."
A hundred years later Ohio Ill
Emperor of Germany, marched 10 The
gates of Paris, but returned after {
useless bravado at Montmartre.
When Edward iii, invaded France
in 1859, he blockaded Paris for {
time and al incident Of the siege
with its pleasant touch of human lazi
ness, a2reeably relieves the monoton.
o ftiic story. The Parisians were 81
fearful that tho noise of the bells ring
ing for mathis should cover the sourt
of the cnemy's approach i'll the dark
that il was ordered mathis should b,
sung i'm ali the churches and convent
al curfew instead oil at midnight;
change found SO agreeable in som
converts, says a chroniclcr, that the.
continued to sing mathis at curfev
instead of at midnight long attic
the English had departed.
Henry VS. occupation of Paris al
Ter the treaty of Troyes, and tho pei
mancnce of an English garrison with
i'm its walls for fourteen years ATTIC
his death, filled a most disastrou
period for France, and the horrors Q
The country were intensified in tn
citv. Famine and pestilcnce reduce
tbc population TO ono half. In tn
journal drum Bourgeois de Pari!
the writer saws he saw boys and girl
living on dirt heaps, thirty and fort
together moaning. Il am dying G
hunger Dogs became SO dangerou
that dog killers were appointed an
from the envirous wolves entered q
night, and attacked people in th
street. Death itself became hsppI
ness in tho dreadful frost of one viii
ter, when it is said to have snowe
for forty days and forty nights, an
men lay down i'm the open ~nerveles
from hunger and cold, to sleep tn
sleep which knows no waking.
The last great siege of Paris was i
1870. At that date the city had bee
for nearly two years under the dc
minion Of the League, composed
Tie Cor sell dos Seize led by the Guli
cs swaycd b. the intrieucs of Phil
II, of Spain. Nine months befol
Hcmy lii, had fallen 10y the knife
jacques Clement. as but a few montl
caller he had caused the Duke 4
Guise to perish by the daggers
Montthery and Loignac, Joined wit
his cousin, Henry of Navarro, he ha
marched TO subduc the city fro
which he had been cast out, and |
is then sai3 TO have pronounced
threat of determination that finds
partial echo now. 1T would be
great pity TO ruin 50 great Il city, b
must have my rights oil the rebc
within it,. Ii is the heart Of the lie
cue, and il is the heart VIC must strik
Paris, head of the Kingdom, but Il
large and too capricious, you wa
bleeding to cure you aud all the re
ofFrancc, to which you impart yor
madness. But a few days longer al
there will be C neither houses n
walls. but only the place where thu
hast been" The death of the auth
OF this pious aspiration compelled b
cousin. now Henry ", 10 withdra
for a time, till OIL the 9TH of Ma
1880, the siege formally began, las
ing three months and seven ia,
The city-then a tenth of its presc
size, numbered over two hundr'
thousand souls it contained eigh
churches aud sixty converts.
The investing army, fresh from I
battle field of lvry, numbered fiftc
thousand and inside the walls the
we're fifty thousand militia and abo
four thousand regular soldiers; /
sides sixty-fiye pieces of canno
Paris was Catholic and its assailar
HugucnOt, and the dntagonism
crccds was used by the defenders
stimulate the populace to cxtraort
nary endurance. The inyestmc
was not complete, and though prov.
ions, not being able to arrive by t
Seine rapidly rose in price till TIN
could not be bought for money, y
some quantity of them was smuggl
into the town. Henry lever used
artillery, so that the progress of q
siege depended solely upon the POI
er Of the Inhabitants to withstand {
gradual diminut:oa of their food su
ply. On the 26th of June-the whe
being exhausted and the poor 81
fering severely, while the members
the religious communities retain'
their sickness of condition-it W
decided that religious houses shou
maintain the poor. On an invento
being taken of the ecclcsiastiC
stores il was found that the Jesu.
had corn for moro than a year, {
CapOchins had biscuit in abundan'
and generally lhc religious hous
were furnished for six months MOI
a fact that docs not of course, csca
Vollairc's satirical mention in ]
"Hcnriadc,"
Soon Paris contained only II
ciasses-thc poor who had money a