The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-18

account of its strength and extent, that an army
of at least 120, 600 men, with an extraordinary
amount of war material, would be needed to
undertake its siege. There only remain of the
Notifications of the sixteenth century the in
trenchments of Guse, the Serpenose tower, the
gate of the Germans, and the tower D'Enfer.
The gate of the Germans seems to have
been preserved to give an idea of all those
which formerly existed, and which have been
demolished useless since the adoption of the
new system of Notifications. They were but
strong castles with four towers surmounted with
batteries, and having each castellan. There
are noticeable on the walls of the tower D'Enfer
traces of Spanish cannon balls, and there is
shown therein the dungeon where during six
months, the monks were shut up who plotted to
deliver the place to the Imperial troops. The
approaches to the town are defended by two
forts six lunettes, and one earth work. These
two forts were built by Cormontaigne that of
Belle-Croix, with the lunette of Cheneau-pre-
sents a development of galleries of mines of
about 10000 metres-crowns on the east the
heights from which one can leap Into the city.
The other called Fort Noselle, or the Double
Crown" is situated toward the north. Its
works, formed of bitches full of water and
fanking Notifications, make it very difficult of
attack by the cannon of the enemy.
Built in 1887, the redoubt, called the IRE
doubt of Pate" occupies the position Oh the
ancient Naumachie, and forms, when they raise
the waters of the Seille, an island, which one
approaches by subterranean gallery. In case
of siege, the waters of the Moselle and the
Seille can be raised sufficiently to inundate the
low ground to the south and southwest of the
town.
Metz also contains an arsenal one of the
largest in France, with cannon foundry at
tached; an armory in which $4,000 stand of
arms are stored in time of peace, and military
hospital which has accommodations for 1900
patients. The ordinary garrison in time of
peace is 1000 men.
The Approaches to Metz
are through nine gates. These are as follcws:-
The gate Des Allemands; the gate Mazellc; the
gate Saint Thiebault, the approaches of which,
like those of the two preceding, are covered by
email, well-cultivated gardens; the Serpenoise
gate, opened for use in 1852, and which es.ab-
lished direct communication between the city
and the railroad station; the gate of France; the
gate of Thionville; the Chambiere gate, oppo-
site the island of Chambiere, where there is
battery of artillery, the central school of mill
tary pyrotechnics, the parade-ground of the
garrison, the gate of the city, the abattoir, the
cemetery of the first two wards and the Jewish
cemetery; the Saulcy gate opposite an island
occupied by the powder magazine, lunette,
and some wool-yards; finally, the Saint Barbe
gate, at the end of the principal street of the
Jewish quarter and which serves as the means
of communication between the arsenal and the
fort of Belle-CroiX.
At the entrance to the gate Des Allemands, on
the tower to the left is the following gothic
inscription
Henri. De Rancoval.
Tut de Get ouUrage nlditre principal 1445.
City that Never Surrendered.
So strong indeed, are the Notifications that
its escutcheons mention as its strongest claim
to renown that it has never been taken since it
has been surrounded by wall, 1t was that il
might not debase itself that this proud city re-
fused q passage to the armies of the Holy
Alliance when they evacuated the French terri
tory. 1t made them cross the Moselle on a
bridge, which it constructed under the ram
parts, in order to spare itself the shame and
grief of such spectacle as would be afforded by
the passage of foreign armies through the walls.
The Fortified Town of Thionyille
is situated seventeen miles north of Metz, on the
left bank of the Moselle, within few miles of
the Prussian frontier. II is the capital of the
reimbursement of the same name, in the Depart
ment of Moselle; and had in 1856 a population
of about 10, 500, besides garrison of 1000 men.
1t is connected with Metz by a railroad, anG
with Luxembourg and other neighboring towns
by excellent roads. 1t has large trade in tim
Der, coal, grain, and iron. The forges and fur
naces in the vicinity produce iron to the value
of about 81, 5O0,0O
1t was to Thionville, says the historian Frede-
gaire that Pepin the Little, in 753, sent his
grandson Charles, at the age of twelve years, to
visit Pope Etienne IL. Charlemagne loved to
stay at Thionville. He there passed the winter,
after he had beaten the SaXons. He rested
there after the conquest of Lombardy. He there
celebrated the feasts of ''Noel and Paques," to
relieve the grief caused By the death of his
Queen, Hildegarde. He there called an assem-
blage of the chiefs of the NATHAN to submit to
them the will which divided his estates among
his three sons. Thionville took the part of the
| Count of Luxembourg under the sovereignty of
the Emperors, when that battle occurred between
Change and Uckange, where the slaughter vas
such, says the historian Bertels, that the blood
of the combatants, running into the Teusch and
| thence into the Moselle, reddened this river az
far as Thiopville. Perhaps no city has changed
masters as often as this one. II belonged to the
! SaXons in 1443, the Duke of Bourgogne il i514,
| two years later to Ladislas v, King of Hungary
and Bohemia, to the Dukes of Bourgogne from
| 1867 to 1877, to the Imperial House of Hapsburg
| up to 1899, to the Kings of Spain up to 16t3, at
last to France, of which it originally formed a
| part. In 1914 General Hugo, commanding the
place, bravey sustained the attack of Pruss
army corps, And forced them to retire with con-
siderable losses.
During the thirteenth, fourteenth, and
fifteenth centuries, Thiroville the best forti-
| fed place in the LuXumbourg country. One
sees there yet the tower Aux PAGES which serves