The Irish standard., 1895-08-03


IIeYS of broken &c ii front came sud
EdenlYIa great shou III that grew In volume
Iasis itI rolled nearer lie heofs 0f 81 gal
loping horse rattl Yon the cause "a
moment later MoItl &c, his face for once
sqtliV ering with excitement, spraIlg from
Ethe saddle and, runaing towards the
king, cried OF It's II is good for us the
position has been retrieved, and the vic
tory is with your majesty The king,
barring his head sprang to his feet with
| a feryent, God be thanked !. and a sim
infamous hurrah welcomed the glad tia
ings. 81
| with characteristic pro7nptftude Mol
| TIE had reaped the fruits OF the great
i.victcryso of Gravelotte.sT The French Army
OF the Rhine had been thrown back on
Metz During the night between the 18th
and 10Th Of August, while King William
| slept In the attic Of a shell-shattered
| house in the squalid village Of Recon.
VILE Moltke and his staff officers, huA-
| died in an adjacent howell, planned the
changed dispositions which the new sit
| uation demanded. To Prince Frederick
| Charles was allotted the investment OF
| Metz with one hundred and fifty thons-
and men. A couple of days later the
army of the Crown Prince and the newly
constituted Army of the MeHse,'' to-
gether numbering over two hundred
thousand men, We're on the march tow
ard Paris on broad front. Marshal Nc
Manon with French army of reserve,
about one hundred and twenty-five
thousand strong was known to be at
| iChalons; and the natural expectation in
| the German headquarters was that he
would fall back on Paris Not until the
afternoon of the 18th had Moitke the as
surance that Mcmahon was on the march
towards Metz for the relief OF BaZaine,
| by a wide turning movement towards
! the north. round the German right flank.
| Moltke acted promptly. The German
| hosts, with extraordinary alacrity and
| deftnass, were made to change front to
the right and to march swiftly forward,
| to strike Mcmahon In the act Of his ex-
! posture Of his strategic flank. The Ger
man cavalry chung closely to the skirts
of the bewildered Frenchmen, harassing
them in skirmishes, and covering the
| German movements by an impenetrable
screen. On the Goth was fou ght the bat
tie Of Beaumont, where the French
| fought with despairing gallantry; but
were finally headed off from the move
ment toward Metz, and were fain to obey
! McMahon's order to concentrate about
Sedan, where the disheyelled and shat
| tered corps gathered YEARLY during the
3lst
The early morning of the list OF Sep
| TENDER disclosed to the Germans the
French army in position on curved
| front around the obsolete fortress Of Sc
dam It's leaders had apparently failed
adequately to realize the desperate char
acter Of the situation. An army that can
fight can march; yet the plea is put for
! ward that on this day the French army
was incapable of making disciplined
march involving fighting; the assertion
was that it could only fight where it
stood" In effect, it was in a complete
trap, extrictation from which was hu-
manly impossible. On the south and
along one-half Of the Western side the
impossible Mouse bounded the position;
the Belgian frontier was close to 1t on the
north. Moltke's dispositions were sim
pie, but effective. The army Of the Meuse
was to attack the eneny's eastward posi-
lions in order to detain him there; two
corps OF. the Crown Princes army, having
occupied on the west side the space be-
tween the bend of the river and the
frontier, were to move to meet the ad-
vancing right of the Mouse army, and
SO fasten the clasp of the belt of en- viron-
Elent.
Moltke, by his mastery and reso1ute
| :.stsa tegy, had deserved victory, and that
victory was now certain because of the
overpowering superiority of the German
strength, and the, feebleness and exhaus-
ton Of the French. But mere victory
would not content him; it was his deter
nination to effect the unparalleled
achievement Of compelling the surrender
in the open field, OF an army still NUM-
bering over enc hundred thousand fight
ing men.
BY four a. H., in a mist from the water
meadows so dense that no man could see
| ten yards to his front. Won der Tam S
Bayarians were moving forward to the
awful tragedy Of Bazeilles, amid the roar
Iaof the cannon covering the advance.
! About seven the German king and his
suite reached the bare fiat top OF the hill
of Marfee, commanding q wide view OF
the theater OF operations. Down in the
Mouse valley, whence by this time the
mist had cleared away, the Bavarian bat
teries were in steady measured action.
| Away to the rightrose the thick column
of smoke that told where Bazeilles was
burning. Farther away in the same di-
rection The pillows of white smoke told
WIlGfb5 tilS sdI lily VI IAhG SAoWAA ~ ! 1870
Of saxony was fighting hard; and on the
left front quivered CLEANS of steel that
marked the advance of the Fifth and
Eleventh corps $on that long turning
movement prescribed to them.
1t was a. remarkable assemblage that
had gathered on the Marfee summit to
watch, as a surgeon might watch a pa
ltient in extremity, the death-throes of
! the army Of Chalons. Out to the front OF
| the great group stood the old king, calm
and observant, his intensity Of interest
betrayed only by the constant handling
Of the heavy white moustache. Behind
the great telescope, mounted on It's tri-
pod, stood Moltke, now gazing through
the tube, now studying the maps spread
| out at his feet. Bismarck sat apart. In
| the rear of the monarch were his kins-
men Of the German Confederation, gem
erals. staff officers and military repre-
| sentatives Of foreign powers, among
whom was most conspicuous the late
! General Sheridan, the military commits
| sioner from the United States.
| The slow hours passed while, with bit
| ter lighting, the environment OF the
| French gradually progressed. Every
step towards that con summation was re-
sisted with fierce and reckless opposi-
| tion.s Gallifet's chassaurs surged down
Ton the Prussian batteries deploying be-
I fore st. Menges, only to recoll before the
! torrent of shrapnel that struck his
| So uadrons fair in the face. Marguerite
rode to his death in front of his gallant
i horse1nen. in vain effort to drive back