A PEACEFUL SORTIE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1001, 4 February 1871, Page 8

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 Buch of us as wished to see the sight were on ihe 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 waggons. The whole of the Prussian line, from Aulnay-lea-Bois round to Goneaae, was put in a atata of prepara-

tion 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 twe. 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 wan made to molest them. Having dug for a short time, but in considerable numbers, under the protection of the French troops, they set out on their return to Paris by St. Denis, still covered by the soldiers. So ended the sortie. The forts expended some ammunition in the afternoon, but without any result.