The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1878-05-10
The Battle Of Sedan.

The Courier des-Etats- Unis, of New
York city, has published the second
volume of Victor Hugo's Historic dun
Crime. The Courier has allowed the
account of the battle of Sedan to be
translated, and the following descrip-
ton of the surrender Of the French
army is eminently characteristic of the
author
'Raveilles takes fire, Givonne takes
fire, Pleing takes fire; the thing be-
gins by furnace. The whole horizon
is aflsme. The French camp is in this
crater, stupifed. scared. startled, in a
funeral swarm. A rain of thunder
bolts encircles the army. Extermina :
tion hens it in.
This immense murder is carried on
on all sides at once. Our guns almost
all old fashioned. and carrying b.dly,
are Immediately dismounted by the
terrible:and precise aim of the Frus-
SLAMS. The density of the rain of shells
upon the valley is such that the earth
Is ruled, says o witness, as by a rake
How many guns2 Eleven hundred at
the Moncelle only; the third and
fourth abtheii,ng. frightful artillery,
on the crests of Givonne, with the Sec
ond horse battery in q reserve; opposite
Doigny, ten Saxon and two Wurtem-
burg batteries; the curtain of trees in
the wood north of Villers-C -Cernay. con-
ceals the mounted aJtheiluag, with the
nd ~
from this gloomy thicket is poured q
formidable fire; the twenty -four pieces
of heavy artillery from q battery near
the road from La Moncelle to La
Chapslle; .he battery of the Royal
Guard sets fire to the wood at de Ia
Carenne; the bombs and the bullets
riddle Suchy. Francheval, Fauru-Saint
Rerny, and the valley between Heibes
and Givonne, and the triple and quad
ruple row Of guns extends, without a
break, to the cavalry of lily, the most
remote point of the horizon.
The German soldiers, seated or re-
cumbent, before the batteries, look upon
the artillery doing its work The
French soldiers fall and die. Among
the French corpses which cover the
plain is one, that of an officer, upon
which they will find, after the battle,
a sealed paper containing this order.
signed by Napoleon: This September
rest for the whole army The viii
liant 35th regiment Of the line disap-
pears almost entirely under the crush
ing mass of shells; the brave marines
hold the Saxon and Bavarians in, check
for an instant. but being overfiowed on
all sides fall back; the whole admira-
BILE cavalry of Margueritte's division,
hurled against the German infantry,
stops and breaks down when half way
on its ROAD, exterminated, says the
the Prussian report, by we'll directed
and quiet fire. The French have not
thought of baIricsding the viaduct of
the railroad. three German battalions
have occupied it all night; the Mont
villers park, at Bayeilles, deep and
full of thick foliage, might have pre-
vented the Saxons. who are masters of
La Moncelle. and Bavarians. who are
masters of Bazeilles. from effecting a
junction, but the French have been
forestalled, and the Bavarians are seen
there cutting away the hedges with
their sickles.
From minute TO minute the fire ap-
proaches, the thunder roll is continuous
Nothing like it was ever witnessed,
never did an army sink under such a
falling mass of grape, At o'clock all
is lost. The regiments take refuge pell
NELL in Sedan. But Sedan begins to
burn; Le Disjonval burns; the ambu-
lances burn, nothing but dash through
the lines is possible. Wimpfen. brave
and firm, suggests it to the emperor.
The 3Sth zouaves. maddened. have set
the example; being parted from tie
remainder of the army. they have made
their way through the foe and reached
Belgium. A flight of lions
Suddenly, above the disaster, above
the enormous heap of slain and dying
men, above all this haplsss heroism
appears shame. The white flag is
hoisted.
There were there Turenne and Vau-
ban-both present, one in his statue.
the other in his citadel.
The statue and the citadel assisted
at the horrible capitulation. The two
virgins, one of bronze, the other Of
granite. felt themselves prostituted.
q, august brow of our country! D..
eternal blush of shamei' Victor Huge