A PEACEFUL SORTIE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 2801, 28 January 1871, Page 3

A PEACEFUL SORTIE.

The Times correspondent at Versailles gives the following account of an odd kind of sortie :— At head-quarters information had been received that there would be a sortie from Paris on the morning of the 12th, and that the movements would be directed against Le Bourget. By seven o'clock such of us as wished to see the sight were on the heights between Blanc Mesnil and Le Bourget. At half-past seven we could see. that a force was coming out from the direction of St. Denis. As it approached the Prussian outpos's we could perceive that there were two battalions of regular troops, followed by irregulars and by a line of wagjons. The whole of the Prussian line, from Aulnay-les-Bois round to Gonesse, was put in a state of preparation for repelling an attack. We concluded that the two battalions would be followed by an additional force, as it was known that on the previous afternoon large bodies of troops had been conveyed by rail to St. Denis from various quarters of Paris. As the first column of French advanced near to the Parisian outposts, the latter fired a volley or two. There was no response from the advancing battalions. They retreated a little, and when out of rifle range halted. Men, women, and children then descended from the waggons and commenced digging in the •■ potato fields; it was evident they were ;in search of provisions, and as they kept within their own lines, no attempt was '. made to molest them. Having dug for a short time, but in considerable numbers, 1 under the protection of the French troops, they set out on their return to Paris by : St. Denis, still covered by the Boldiers. So ended the sortie. The forts expended iSdme ammunition in the afternoon, but | without any result. | Balloon letters bring curious details of the ingenious devices by which the PariI Bians vary and improve their daily fare. jThe lakes and pends in the woods of : Boulogne and Vincennes, some of which 'ai-e likely soon to get low, owing to the ! supply of water being j?ut off, are dragged ;for the fish,that abounds in them. The is sold every morning by auction, :fine carp and pike averaging barely a ifranc a pound, although the shops retail them at four or five times ;that price. From the 4th to the :10th of November, the piice of jbutchers' meat was fixed by the authorities at from i3d to 2s 5d per kilogramme according to the part, and mutton at lid to Is 6d. These moderate prices, of jcourse^do not imply abundance. There are an immense number of ownerless dogs in Paris, abandoned by emigrants, which 'find it difficult to get a livingl Some of ;them visit the camp and outposts outside the walls, begging the soldiers' hospitality, and may be heard howling piteously at ;night when they return to town and find the gates closed. One letter says that some people began to eat dog, which is not im■probable, since French soldiers campaigning have been known to eat rats. Roast dog and fried goldfish would be curious items in a l>ill of fare. The object of presenting the shooting of game in France Ithis year is said to have been to economise powder, besides which, sport of any ikind might well be held unseemly in these idisastrouß times. But the snaring of game seems equally prohibited, and even :its importation. Such a. thing as a roast hare is never seen, and pigeons are substituted for partridges at Tours in the lavourite, French dish of perdrix aiix chowa.