Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-02-03

| reach quarter of n mile beyond. Only three
| or four have found at a greater distance.
Those whose work of destruction saw to-day
were, in all probability, the random shots which
| the most skillful 9unners can not avoid. So up
TO this writing | see no reason for believing that
"the bombardment has commenced" but as for
the steadfastness, and courage and all the rest
of it, so frequently called for by the government,
heaven knows how greatly it is needed.
Some of our garrison affect to sneer at the
Prussan attack, but Others, not a few and not a
minority, know very well that as the result Of
this attack the circumference of Dutch fire has
been considerably reduced; that some positions,
once so "impO tant' to the sortieing army,
have been rapidly vacated by it,; that two of the
forts have been damaged, and that, in short,
now at the end of four months siege, instead of
the Prussians being forced off, punished and
shattered by the garrison, they are closing in
upon us, and bombarding the second and last
line of our detences under the very fire of our
splendidly situated and splenddly equipped
forts.
However, let me hasten to reflect the new SEN
satiOn which has come to life since / sat down :
Tomorrow or next day, or the day after, or the
day after that, we are going to have Il sortie
certain, sure and no mistake. 1t was to have
taken place yesterday, but just as we had one
foot in the stirrup, and the interminabe line of
ambulances were falling, a Countermand comes
from Trochu on perspiring steed. The Prus-
slams knew all about it; consequently it was no
use Dul HOW We are 10 see WHAT luaUy u DGuNc
fellow "waited for, and died without the sight"
Now the "plan Trochu" is about to pass out of
q chrysalis into a butterfly.
A grocer national said to me an hour ago:
"You'l see. The Prussians are splitting at us.
They'll quit their splitting presently" Prudence
restrained me from replying: "See that you
don't let them rub it in" The grocer is rep
resentative. He is a contractor, besides being a
grocer; and he is one of the commission of sub
sistence, besides being contractor and grocer.
His nest is feathered. He looks as bland as the
full moon of this evening. He is fat. There
are lots of such. They fatten in proportion as
their country becomes lean. If Paris would
shoot down all her mercenaries and all her pol
troons and all her lunatcs, she might hope to
shoot down all her enemies. Venality, sensu-
atty and cowardice these are the little foxes,
rather the big wolves, that gnaw the thews in
Ducrots energy, and poison the hopes in Tro-
chu's strategy. If the city is delivered in any
sense, or saved in any degree, it will be by the
intervention of that hand which never leaves
the awful wheel. 1t will be the voice which
never forsakes the affairs of the world, saying
to the victor, "Stay thy hand and to the van
pushed, at is enough" So, repeat, it looks
to me this Hath day of the siege. That our
laSsitude may change into throes of noble en-
ergy, and our everlasting retreat into an inter-
mnable series of invincible dasheS, is one of
those possibilities suggested by the caprice Of
war; but that this garrison, up to this hour, has
been any other than disgracefully and scandal
lousy remss in all that goes to prove fidelity
and demonstrate heroism cannot be questioned
for moment by any one who thinks upon the
SUBJECT for that long time. This is the opinion
Of the Americans here who recollect the raids
and dashes and persistent ingenuities resorted
TO by both sides in our late war, and who ask,
without hearing an answer:-"Where are the
trelesS, restless attempts at harassing and tor
menting the enemy who has been closing in
upon the capital and iutrenching himself around
it like the iron chain of fate" Ahr fate's the
world How it will come to my mind and my
pen! Write what | will, l write that-turn
where | will, see that All the follieS aud fail
ures of poor Trochu as well as all the vast sue
cesses of Won NIoltke, look like the hand of the
inevitable read like the fulfllment of prophecy,
sound like the striking of the hour of destiny
and doom "