News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-08-24
Alexandria After the BOmbardment.

A correspondent of the London
Times writes as follows: I have just
returned from the town, having landed
with the second detachment of marines.
We had to make our way through heaps
of rubbish, from which the marines
picked up the most miscellaneous assert
ment of odds and ends, consisting of
buttons, stays, playing cards, files and
boxes of matches. At several points
we had to go in single file, at others to
wait to allow a wall to fall, at others to
leave the street and adopt a more passa-
BILE sideway. No one was to be
1t was a march over the ruins of what
had been a city.
At last we reached what had been the
Square. What it was is too we'll known
to need description; what 1t is is quite
beyond all my powers. There in the
centre, lighted up by a lurid mass of
smoke, stood the large equestrian statue
of Mehemet Ali; behind it I could see
the Palais de Justice. OF the rest 1 can
only say that I distinguished nothing.
On either side of me was one long line
of fire. At every moment a house fell
that made a sound which recalled the
cannonade. AS I walked ON, I tried,
but failed, to distinguish n house from
another. In a place which I have seen
almost daily for seventeen years, 1
could not aver find out the openings of
the familiar streets leading to the mar
kets. 1 could only guess where certain
familiar houses had been from the
proximity to the statue, which stood
| alone in the centre.
AS I walked, bounding from side to
side to avoid the falls of masonry, an
| offensive odor would cause me to look
through the smoke. At last we distin-
guished two moving figures. We went
to them and I acted as interpreter while
they told us a history which reminded
one of Dante's Inferno. The perfect
calmness, the utter absence of excite
ment with which they told the tale of
horrors, the business-like accuracy with
which they showed us where to go to
find persons in distress, and the quiet
manner in which. after giving us all the
information we required, they left to
return to their work of danger and
charity as quietly as if there were moth
ing extraordinary in their position, was
proof of a sort of heroism which won
the admiration of all and compels me to
give their names. They were Pere
GuiIlaume, q Belgian Franciscan, and
Frere Mivielle, a French Lazarist.
At last we made our way to the other
end of the Square. Through the trees
of the garden and the smoke we could
see the English church still standing,
though, I think, slightly injured, and
perhaps looted. AS we passed q win
dow in a house at the back of the church
we were greeted with cheers, "Bravo,
Iuglesi p and so forth. The next build
ing was that of Dahan, where 1 found a
trembling porter displaying a conspicu
GUS sheet of white paper as a peace
signal. I found all we'll. To the left,
on the opposite side, is the large I'M
furnished building of EURO, and a watch
man with tears in his eyes begged me
to assure his master that all was safe,
and he had even kept his papers on his
person.
AS we approached the street leading
to the Coptic Church q crowd came
toward us carrying the flag of truce.
They were chiefly Copts, but some were
Arabs, who came to say they had 1900
refugees in the Coptic Church, also one
prisoner, a Berber, whom they had ar
rested while he was assisting to burn
down houses. This man was brought
out, accompanied by his master, a re-
spectacle italian named Tresta, who
stated that his servant had forced him
to leave his house and had set fire to it.
The man was handed over to the
guard, and after ample evidence had
been adduced in support of the state
ments against him he was shot.