The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-09
THE FLIGHT INTO SWITZERLAND.
The Wrecks Of BourbakI,s Army.


On Wednesday morning, February 1, the
Swiss heard that SO, 600 French had crossed the
border during the night. The possibility OF
such an event had been foreseen, but 1t had
been thought more probable that the retreating
force would have been driven into Besancon to
help In the reduction of that place, as Bazaine's
soldiers had been in the case of impregnable
Metz. But now much anxiety was felt as to
whether the French would yield their arms,
whether the Swiss would fire upon them If
they refused, whether the Prussians would
pursue or whether in many ways Switzerland
might not find herself very awkwardly situated.
The arrival of troop of French cavalry on
the following afternoon put an end to all sur
Musings, and explained much that we had before
thought very wonderful. The horses seemed
scarcely able to stand. They were understood
and half famished. Their legs were knotted and
swollen; their tails and names often rotted away;
the long shaggy hair of their ungroomed coats
matted with dirt. The riders were warmly clothed
in large overcoats, and, what seems to be nearly
universal among officers and men of all arms,
the broad-peaked cap. 1t was the general
mounted heavy cavalrymen would have ridden
over the whole two hundred. On inquiry
found these were really old soldiers, and next
day recognized the uniform, often seen in
Paris, of the Gendarmerie, only without the
traditional three-cornered hat. During Friday
and Saturday infantry poured into the town, the
intervals between the arrival of the large bodies
being filed by stragglers in every stage of ex-
with hanging heads, sunken cheeks, and start
ing eyes. Such multitude of famished, weary,
footsore, ragged, and sickly human beings was
surely never gathered together. Those unable
to march came in by train.
Shall l be accused of exaggeration If at
tempt to describe their condition? l have seen
poor in London and beggars in Egypt, but tnever
such wholesale misery as was here. Hundreds
of poor fellows, their uniforms torn to rags,
limped past. The feet and hands of nearly all
were frost-bitten, causing the greatest pain. On
many q face incipient fever had begun its ra-
wages; many would never march again. In all
the shrunk features and crouching gait told of
gnawing hunger, while the deep cough and
hoarse voice bore witness to long nights spent
on snow and frozen ground. Some had tied
bits of wood under their bare feet to protect
them from the stones; others wore
wooden sabots; hundreds had no socks
and when they had they were merely
of thin Gotten; others, who appeared well shod,
would show a soleless or heelless boot, the ex-
posed pal of the foot once frozen, being now
a wound crusted with dirt. For weeks none had
washed or changed their clothes, or removed
their boots. Nothing but hurried march aud
counter march. Their hands were blacker
than any Africans. Some had lost their toes,
the limbs of others were so frozen that every
movement was agony. The men stated that
for three days they had neither food nor fodder
served out to them, and that before that they
often got only one loaf between eight men,
Correspondence London Times.