SHELLS FROM MONT VALERIEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1006, 11 March 1871, Page 11

SHELLS FROM MONT VALERIEN.

The special correspondent of The Times, writing from St. Germain on December 25, says :—: —

The drive to St. Germain, over a road on which the ice lay harder than the stones, was worth taking, for the day was so wonderfully clear that the valley of the Seine, from Bougival to Argenteuil and round to the heights north-west of St. Denia, were juat like a landscape in a camera obscura. My companion could not refrain from a slight exclamation when he saw Vale'rien." " Why, it is quite close to us !" And so it looked, sharp cut and clear, with its neat slopes and parapets, its massive barracks and trim ramparts And as we were looking, lo ! there was belched out a mighty volume of smoke high from the rampart of Valdrien. It attracted attention only for a moment, and I was explaining the details of the position to my companion, when suddenly there grew up high above us a sound which is like nothing else in the world — the iron pinion of the Death Angel which is sent from the mouth of the cannon. Down it swooped, and from the opposite bank of the river which flows at our feet there came an eruption of earth and fat smoke as the shell blew out a tremendous crater. It was a decided success — a messenger from one of the new guns, which had thus made a sweep to strike a point 8000 metres away. Do not smile a* the Death Angel ; for surely ttiat shell, well landed in the midst of them, would have sufficed to shake a battalion , There was a dog in the field where it fell, and the wild circles it made, barking with fright round the spot, were very amusing. In a few seconds a Frenchman in a blouse came out from ainont: >he houses on the river bank, and went t.>the gaping hole ; and then another, ai:<l next a Prussian soldier. Again a wom-m appeared, and more soldiers ; and a Frenchman got into the crater, in which he was buried up to the shoulders, and the dog finally joined him. The group was complete. There was a little pause after this. I went down with my friend, and passed through the court of the hotel out to the terrace, which was crowded with people, for there, beyond that mound of houses, far off in the centre of which tower the spiri s of St. Denis, there appears to he some heavy sortie, brat it is very mauy miles away, towards Le Bourgetai)part*ntly,and only at times can one hear the dull thud of the guns, which have thrown out a white-and-gray fog- bank over the .eastern side of Paris. I was standing in a group in which were General yon Lowe, who commands here, Lieutenant- colonel Harver, Mrs Mackenzie, an English Lady, and her children. There were many Prussian soldiers in front, some French ladies and gentlemen, and a great crowd of idlers from St. Germain who haunt the terrace. In our rear a body of infantry was drawn up for evening parade under the trees. To the eye of the artillery officer at Valerian the assembly must have presented a splendid mark. The thick white cloud, bigger than a man's hand, and opaque as cream, spurted out from Yalerien again. No one minded it. I believe we were talking of the latest news, and many seconds apparently had elapsed when suddenly French men and women and soldiers made a rush from the rails in front of the terrace, as the roar of the terrible projectile burst on them, and, singing in our ears, it crushed down this time right across the river, at the side of what is called * Gladstone's House.' The general stood firm, and shouted, ' What are you about men ? Steady there ! ' But the flurry was over in an instant, and the ladies and gentlemen who had fled came back, some smiling, some grave, The ladies, who had been most agitated, were quite comforted by the general's assurance that the gun had developed its full power, 8300 metres. As lam going to sleep within 200 yards of the spot, I trust the general is right.