The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-08-18

PHIU u our business came to see the
Dill, ne refused to pay any such outrage
Gus charges This was the cause ct
bringing on war of words, Madam La
Hroprletalre taking the settling of the
thing upon herself. No one who has not
seen French woman of that class en-
ragged can have any adequate idea of the
tremendous volume of words she is in
the shortest possible space OF time capa-
pie OF pouring forth. From my seat in
the carriage could both see and hear
the war;
MIC. would offer her a sum of money
she would refuse; at last Mr.. G. placed
a large sum of money on the table and
turned to leave the room; Madame with
one sweep of her hand swept all the
money upon the floor, whereupon our
flnancier turned and bending down gath
cred it together and placing it in his
pocket walked out and took his seat in
the carriage and drove away. We at
once drove to the Mayors Office, placed
the sum Madame had refused to accept
in his hands, and left Rheims, with it's
wine and its swindling inn keepers far
behind.
Later on, while in small village in
which we had stopped for short time
| to water and bait the horses, being
about to start, we were ordered to halt
in the most peremptory manner. Upon
| looking around to find who had spoken
in such tone OF authority, we discov-
| cred little, dried-up old man, who it
seemed was the Mayor; he further de-
| manded to see our passports, and after
these had been examined by him, we
| were informed we might depart. We
| met no one on all that journey who had
| a more exalted opinion of what was due
| his official rank than the Mayor of this
| hamlet. 1t seems he was greatly in
suited because we chose to depart with
| out paying onr respects to him.
We went little out of our way so as
to visit the
BATTLEFIELD OF SEDAN.
For some miles before reaching the
place where the "battle was fought"
evidences OF a struggle were to be seen
on all Sides, all of which spoke in silent
language OF what we were nearing.
When fairly upon the spot where the
armed hosts of France and Germany met
the very air seemed hushed with fear at
the scenes there enacted. One battlefield
differs not materially from another ex-
cept the lay of the land, but when some
one pointed out to us the narrow valley
that the French were driven into, and
the hill over which their Cuirassiers
charged in making their last brave effort
then closing on the throat of France,
and when we remem bered that the man
who came there from the Tuillerles was
now no more. an emperor, that the gov
eminent at whose head he was, had be-
come thing of the past, that the very
enemy who faced him and his army on
this spot was now knocking .ar the gates
of Paris with a hand of iron and calling
upon that city with voice of thund
and tongue of flame to surrender, we
could but realize that we were on the
SPOT where one of the greatest events of
modern history had taken place, where
Napoleon III. made his last throw. The
evening following our visit to the bat
tlefield was passed in a village a few
miles away. While at dinner we were
much entertained by the account given
us by Prusslan cavalry officer who had
taken part in the'fght. His description
of the terrible effect OF the Mitrailleuse
assused by the French was most graphic,
He said whenever the French could get
ore. of those guns trained on massed men,
theyswould be cut down like grass be-
fore scythe; why l saw a battalion
melt right out of sight"
We were now approaching that part of
France which was at that time still in
| the hands of the French, .and the coun-
try was said to be full of French
Tireurs," kind of organized band that
carried on a mild kind of guerrilla
! warfare. In our stops in some of the
smaller places we had come in contact
with a few of these "embattled farmers"
and always found them very pleasant
| fellows, to whom we owed much, for
on account of their knowledge of the
country we had been enabled to take
shorter and better roads when desiring
to reach some particular place. They,
| however, were held in wholesome fear
| by the average German, who often
warned us of them, calling them scav-
| engers"
| Ou route often took us from the Ger
man intosthe French. lines, and then back
into the German again. Thus the day
| which was to be our last in the German
| line was passed just before entering a
small city at that time held by the
French.
After short chat with the officer in
| charge we made enquiries as to how we
| should enter the town. To this ques-
| tion he laughingly answered "that was
| just what we were considering. The
| town being on the other side of the ri, or
as the French had destroyed the bridge,
| it did not look very favorable to our pro
gress. However, upon making further
| inquiry, we were informed that there
still remained an old, condemned sus-
pension bridge, to reach which we
should be obliged to drive across the