New-York tribune., 1870-09-07

the houses and gun-carriages, but nobody re-
membered TO feed or water them, and in the
frenzy of hunger and thirst they broke loose
and ran wild through the town. Whoever
liked might have horse-even officers horses
which were private property-for the trouble
of catching them.
EMPTYNG THE MONEY CHEST.
When the Prussians came into the town they
were very sore and angry at the sight of all
this destruction and waste. What must have
pleased them still less, was the state in which
they found the military chest. AS soon as the
surrender was resolved on, the French officers
were told to make out the best accounts they
could, present them, and receive payment
Naturally, the statements thus brought In soon
proved sufficient to empty the treasury.
know of officers who demanded and received
payment for horses that were not killed and
baggage which had not been lost. Demorah-
zation showed itself in every way. Even the
standards were burned or buried, an act of
bad faith not to be palliated even by the grief
and rage of a beaten army.
GEN. DE FAILLY.
Their rage is greater against no one than
Gen. De Failly. He had a room in the hotel
where l was staying. On Friday, great
multitude of soldiers gathered before the
house, the doors of which were closed, de-
manding Gen. De Failly with such shouts and
menaces that the landlord thought it prudent
| to hurry him out of a back window. The
| soldiers, could they have reached him, would
have torn him to pieces. Since then, l have
heard the report that he was shot by one OF
his own men; but no such event had happened
on Saturday, and could not well happen later.
| FRENCH ANNOYANCEs AND PRUSsIAN COURTESY.
1t was relief on Saturday when the Prus-
slams came in and occupied the town, and re-
stored order. / am sorry to have to acknow-
! ledge that all through the campaign the French
| have acted much more like a cOnquering army
! in a hostile country than the Prussans. All
| the annoyance l have experienced personally
came from my own cOuntrymen; from the
peasants whO above all, saw spy in every
! stranger. When fell into the hands of the
Prussians, l found them courtesy itself. On
leaving Sedan and thence to the frontier, in
passing through the Prussian posts, l was
stopped often. / had but to say, " l am the
correspondent of an American journal" and
was at once sent kindly forward. On the back
of my French military pass the Prussian Staff
| was not obliged even to show my papers, my
word was taken and once out of Sedan l was
speedily through.
When left Sedan on Sunday morning things
were rapidly getting in order. The streets
were cleared of dead horses and men. The
indescribable filth of the town was swept into
the river. The shops were opening again.
Discipline had taken the place of disorder. L
saw enough of Prussian organization and en-
ergy to change, if the grievous defeat OF a
noble army had not already changed, the opln-
| ion have 80 often expressed that ultimate
victory for France was sure.
WHY THE FRENCH WERE so OFTEN SURPRISED.
| have followed MacMahon from the day
when | found him reorganizing his army at
Chalons to the fatal day at Sedan, when he
! surrendered the last organized force In France,
! save the remnant of that which Is shut up In
| Metz Certainly, when / was at the camp OF
| Chalons, and then at Rheims, had observed
/ that the number of stragglers was enormous,
and | continually met soldiers who did not
know where their regiments were. L had seen
men and officers disabled by wounds which
| French soldiers of other days would have
despised; | had remarked how untidy and
careless the men were allowed to be about
I
their dress and equipments. These things,
slight, but significant to military eye, had
caused me, no doubt, some misgivlngs
as to the rapidity of the ccess
we had a right to expect L saw
also how prone French officers were to avoid
! the fatigues of long marches and the discom-
| fort of bivouacs. / remember how often L
have traversed the French lines at dead OF
night and at early dawn, and never heard
challenge, never came across French vedette,
never have fallen in with a party of scouts.
! On the other hand, l have seen officers spend
the time that ought to have been given to
their men, in cafes or in poor village inns.
Often even officers of the staff seemed TO
neglect their duties for paltry amusements,
showing themselves ignorant sometimes even
of the name of the Department In which they
were; so that have known French General
obliged to ask his way from peasants at the
meeting of two roads. I struggled long against
all this kind of evidence, but the end Is only
too clear Painful it is to me, but am bound
to declare my belief that any further effort
France may make can only cause useless
bloodshed and that means OF escape from
her peril must now be sought otherwise than
by force of arms.
THE GREAT CAPITULATI0N.
DETAILS OF THE sURRENDER-INTERvrEw BE-