Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-05-16

| could see the flash of armor and seemed To
| hear the thunder of horse hoofs. The mailed
| cavalry of France in their furious gallop
were within POO yards of tho silent infantry
men in blue tunics and spiked helmets. With
| them it seemed all over. How could they
stand against that swift, strong torrent rag
| ing down upon theml Suddenly from the
| steadfaSt ranks flashed whitening volley,
| then another and another and C. the pano-
| piled array of French cavalry was writhing
| in the dust, shattered wreck.
MAN IN BLUE UNDREss.
"a quivering silence had pervadcd the
group of leaders and staff officers upon the
| Hill of Frenois. King William had risen
| from his camp chair and was standing with
his eye at great field telescope mounted on
| tripod. The strained silence was curiously
broken as the French cuirassier brigade met
| its fate by the snap of Il closing bnoCular,
| followed by the quite decisive words:
Its all over with the French now
"All eyes turned on the speaker, II Short
compact, resolute man in blue undress uni
form that was not German. He was none
other thun Gen. Phil Sheridan, representa-
tive of the United States army attached to
the royal headquarters. At the word the
German chiefs ran TO shake the foreign
soldier by the hand, for they knew the com
ment came from the Past master in the art of
war.
"An hour later, the same afternoon, it was
no longer battle, but massacre. Save for the
casual spatter of musketry among the smold-
ering ruins of Bazeilles and the loud bicker
of fire on the shaggy woodland above
Givenne, French resistance had died out
Yet, proud and stubborn, the army whose
ancestors had conquered at Jena and Auer-
show token a Sf1TrpDHnr
Moltke, with practical eye to the psycholog
ical moment, gave the word to bring up
fresh batteries.
but King William, u soldier to the core
and conqueror as he was would make the
first advance, and bade Cob Bronzart, of tho
general staff, take flag of truce into Sedan
and point out the futility of further resist
ance. Bronzart, at his steady trot, disap-
peared within the outwork of Torey, and
was no more seen. The lurid day was wan
ing, the sleeping sunbeams falling on the
mangled ghastliness of the dead and wounded
that Uttered the plateau of Honig on the
gray fortress hall, mantled in a swart of
smoke of fires which the she'll fire had lit in
the distracted town, on the broken French
army covering up to the time worn ram
parts.
1.-The crown prince, with his stalwart, sol
diery stride, had walked across from Dou-
- l;u ,,,L,,,o 10 l,,I H.. l.,,o
mn no nt'u "a; s't1', lie S'i
u Ino -; - IT,. ~ - N''P
''i''' '"'AiNe W N'' A''5 'N' 'o
THE WHITE rAAo "AHNd'
'At length there is the white flag waving
from the summit of the Sedan prefecture
and there is Bronzart with his trumpet, and
beside hun rides an officer III uniform which
afar off we discern Is French The little
party ride up the steep ascent at gallop
Bronzart, short distance OH, halts the
Frenchman, and, dlsmountlng himself, walks
up to King William and utters single short
sentence, ut which William starts violently
and leaps to his feet
Z" Der kaiser lst da,' was what Bronzart
said, with arm outstretchod toward Sedan.
The king repeated the words IN loud, sur
prised accents, and they found surprised
echo from every lip, for there had been 10
surmise that Napoleon, having forsaken the
fortune of Bazine's army, was now sharing
the fortunes of MacMahon's
'Bronzart was hidden to bring up Gen.
Count Reille, the French officer who had ac-
companied him, and who, it appeared, was
the bearer of a special communication from
Strange contrast OF condtlon. Three
years before hellle had been the ofilcer IN
"altlllS on hlhg "lliiahi' curing ms VISIT TO
the Ihlerles NOW ne approached william
again as an emlssafy from MS master on the