THE FIGHTING OUTSIDE PARIS.

Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 362, 5 April 1871, Page 3

THE FIGHTING OUTSIDE PARIS.

The dreadful aspect of the, battle-field outside Paris, after the, great sortie, is thus described by a correspondent of the London ' Times': — There is a park just at the extreme end of the village of Villiers, on the Paris side.: Before and all around it raged the battle on both days—the 30th of November and the 2nd of December. The chateau is officers' quarters. How it suffered ! There is scarcely a window-sash left in one side of it, and to approach it there is no necessity to make use of the entrance gate. The wall is smashed from top "to bottom in a dozen places. I entered near the gate, and the first sight I saw was ten dead Saxons in a row. Their faces were covered, and three of their comrades watched over them. Passing through the park in the direction of Paris, I walked out through an embrasure in the wall and came upon rising ground. It was one of the hottest parts of the battle-field, and almost the centre of the scene of fighting, Heavens, what a sight ! To see the men advancing under fire of the forts, and falling- at every step; to see the French and Saxons amid that horid din of artillery, shooting one "another down with Chassepot and needleo'uii; to hear the " hurrahs" followed by a volley, and us the smoke died awey to find the lines thinned, and living men advancing- oyer the prostrate bodies of dead find dying, was horrible, but nothing like so horrible as the .sight of the battle- field, with hundreds of dead and dying there in tiie cold air, the sun shining on their g-hastly features and stiff forms, while the cannon on Avron and Nogent were thundering with sounds which shook the earth for miles round. Oueofthd first great groups I came upon was composed ot sixty French soldiers. A few Saxons and Wurtembergers lay around them ; but the Germans had already removed and laid in their last sleeping- place most of r.he dead. The centre of the group wivs formed of a close line of forty- six. You could not have placed a body between any two. They fell shoulder to shoulder just as they had stood to fire. By far the greater number of them were on there backs, with their feet to Paris and their heads to Villiers. Also, it was painfully evident that many of them, and of others whom I saw subsequently, but who had lived probably many hours without a hand to leud them succor, and in piercing snow and frost. One poor fellow lay on his face. He had two rifle wounds in his back Tie had partly stripped himself, and he died with a bund on each bullet-hole. Several had taken off their knapsacks and placed them under their heads, and so pillowed, had breathed their last breath. Others clenched their water bottles in one hand, but had been unable to remove the cork, and died without being able to wet their -lips in their last agony. Some, in their sufferings, had burrowed their faces in the thick clay on which they lay, ond turned their bloody and earth-stained faces upward before they expired. Two soldiers I saw, who bad their arms fixed and their fists clenched, as if while dying, they were engaged in a pugilistic encounter. Only very i'ew were on their sides. These had their knapsacks under their heads. There were men on whose faces beamed the smile of an infant, and whose countenances were like handsome wax- work. The expression of others was that of terrible agony. Every feature was contorted ; their legs had been convulsively jerked up until their knees struck into their stomachs, and their finger and thumb nails had been squeezed until they became riveted into the palms of their hands. Behind, before, and at the corners of this line of forty-six dead men were others. Saxons and French. One had a frightful wound in the face. He had pulled his hands up into bis sleeves to warm liiem, but his can had fallen off, and the blood clotted in his hair till it was all in bloody mats. Near him was another, who had tiken a biscuit from his knapsajk and a bottle from his side, and had partaken of both. More than one of the slain had died with the hands clasped in prayer ; and near one I found a little plaster medallion of the Blessed Virgin. A portion of the edge had been shot off it. The Ohassepots and needleg-uns were still in wianv a dead man's hand, and lying between his arm and his body. Similar were the sights all over the plateau between Villiers and Brie, and Villiers and Champagny ; and among the corpses were knapsacks, helmets, shakos, bayonets, and many a letter sealed anu directed to relatives and friends, both in Germany and France. Near a cemetery, situated on the battle-field itself, I saw between 200 and 300 dead French soldiers collected closely together ; they had been removed from where they bad fallen, and collected in that spot for burial. All were regulars, and a considerable proportion of them wev* men of at lrast 25 or 30 years of age. They were dead nearer to Paris than any spot I visited, though the fortifications were much too close to be at all agreeable, and Neuilly^sur-Marne and Fontenas-sius-Bois seemed to be within a few minutes' distance on my right and left. I hope there were no wounded. No armistice for the removal of the dead and wounded had been agreed to ; but both sides have been removing them by night. So late as last night some of tLe German wounded were found among" the dead, and are now in the hospital. What must have been their sufferings in snow and frost since the 2nd instant, for they had been lying out day and niguc since then, if not since the 30th.