THE BATTLE OF SEDAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 755, 24 October 1870, Page 2

THE BATTLE OF SEDAN.

The following account is from the special correspondent of the New York Tribune, at the headquarters of the King of Prussia, eight miles from Sedan. It is dated Thursday night, Sept. 1: — After the defeat on the 30th and 31st of August (of which I have already informed you), the French retreated en masse on Sedan and encamped. This I learned from French prisoners, of whom, as you may imagine, there was no lack in number. It seems they fully believed that the road to Mezieres would be always open to them, and, therefore, in eas • of another defeat before Sedan, their retreat could be easily accomplished. On the evening of Wednesday, Aug. 31, from 5 to 8 o'clock, the Crown Prince's head-quarters were at Chemoy, a village some seven miles from Sedan, to the south or southwest, on the main road. At 5.30 we saw there waa a great movement among tbe troops encamped all around us, and we thought at first the King was riding through bivouac, but soon the Thirtyseventh Regiment came pouring through the village, their band playing " Die Wacht am Rhein," as they marched along with swinging stride. I saw at once by the men's faces that something extraordinary was going on, and it was soon plain that the troops were in the lightest possible marching order. All their knapsacks were left behind and they were carrying nothing but cloaks slung around their shoulders— except that one or two boh vivants retained their camp kettles; but, if camp kettles were left behind, cartouche cases were there, hanging heavily in front of men's belts, unbalanced, as they ought to be, by knapsacks. Soon I learnt that the whole Prussian Corps, those sent from Prince Frederick Charles', army to the Second Army of the Crown Prince, were making forced marches to the left, in the direction of Douzy and Mezieres, in order to shut in M'Mahon's army in the west, and so drive them against the Belgian frontier. I learned from officers of the Crown Prince's staff, that at the same time we were marching regiment after regiment to pass through Cremery ; also the Saxons and Guards, eighty thousand strong. The Prussian regiments under Prince Albert of Saxony, were also marching rapidly to close on the doomed French army on the right bank of the Meuse, which they had crosspd at Remilly, on the 30th, in the direction of La Chapelle, a small village of 930 inhabitants, on the road from Sedan to Bouillon, in Belgium, and the last village before crossing the frontier. Anything more splendid than the men's marching would be impossible to imagine. I saw men lame in both feet, hobbling along in the ranks, kind comrades, lees foot-sore, carrying their netdle guns.

Men who were actually incapable of putting one foot before the other, had pressed the peasant's wagons and other available conveyances into the service, and were following in the rear, so as to be ready for the great battle which all felt sure would come off on the morrow. The Bavarians, who, it is generally believed, do not march so well as they might, were in the centre, between us and Sedan, camped around the woods of La Marfee, famous in 1841 during the wars of the League. When I had seen the regiments dash through — the pace at which they went can really not be •-•ailed marching in the ordinary sense — I rode off about a quarter past eight in the evening, for Vendres, where the King's Headquarters were, and where I hoped to find house-room for man and beast, especially the latter, as being far more important on the evening of a great battle. When I got within about half a mile of Vendres, going at a steady trot, a shout " halt " rang out clear. I brought my horse to a stand-still, knowing that the Prussians are not to be trifled with. As I pulled up, twenty yards off, I heard the clicks of their locks as they brought their weapons to full cock, and covered me ; my reply being satisfactory I jogged on into Vendres, and my mare and myself had soon forgotten the sentinels, the forched marches, and the coming battles — one of us on the stand and the other on the floor. At seven on Thursday morning (Sept. 1), my servant came to wake me, saying that the King's horses were harnessing, and that His Majesty would leave in half an hour for the battle-field, and that cannonading had already been heard near Sedan. I jumped up, seized a crust of bread , a bottle of wine, some cigars, and crammed them into my holsters, taking my breakfast on the way. Just as I got to my horse the King drove out in an open carriage, with four horses, for Chevange, about; three and a half miles south of Sedan. Much against my will I was compelled to allow the King and his staff to precede me on the road to the scene of action, where I arrived myself soon after. At nine o'clock it was impossible to ride, all the roads being blocked with artillery, ammunition waggons, ambulances, &c. As I rode on to the crest of the hill, which rises sharply about six or seven hundred feet above the little hamlet of Chevrouse, nestled in the grove below, a most glorious panorama burst on my view. General Forsythe, of the United States Army, remarked to me later in the day, that it would have been worthcoming merely to see so splendid a scene, without the battle's magnificently stern array. In a lovely valley below us, from the knoll on which I stood with the King and staff, we could see not only the whole valley of the Meuse, but also beyond the great woods — Bois de Loupe, and Franchivale, into Belgium, and as far as the hilly forest of Namur. On the other side of the frontier, right at our feet lay the little town of Sedan, famous for its fortifications by Vauban, and the birth-place of Turenne, the great Marshal ; known also as the place where Sedan chairs originated. As we were only about two and a quarter miles from the town, we could easily distinguish its principal edifices without the aid of our glasses. On the left was a very pretty church, its Gothic spire of sandstone offering a conspicuous target for the Prussian guns, had Gen. Moltke thought best to bombard the town. To the right, on the southeast of the church, was a large barrack, with the fortifications of tlie Citadel beyond it, and beyond this to the southeast again, was the old chateau of Sedan, with a picturesque group of round turreted towers of the Sixteenth Century, very useless, even against the four-pounder Krupp field pieces. This building, I believe, is nbw an arsenal. Beyond this was the citadel, the heart of .Sedan, on a rising hill above the Meuse to the southeast, but completely commanded by hills on both sides of the river which runs in front of the Citadel. The French had flooded the low meadows in the valley before coming to the railroad bridge at Bazeilles in order to stop the Germans from advancing on the town in that direction. With their usual stupidity, for one can find no other word for it, the French had failed to mine the bridge at Bazeilles, and it was of immense service to the Prussians throughout the battle. The Prussians actually threw up earthworks on the iron bridge itself to protect it from the French, who more than once attempted, early in the day, to storm the bridge in hope of breaking the Bavarian communication between the right and left banks of the Meuse. This, they were unable to do, and although their cannon shot has almost demolished the parapet of the bridge, the bridge itself was never materially damaged. On the projecting spurs of the hill, crowded by the wood of Lormfee, of which I have already spoken, the Bavarians had stood two batteries of six-pounder rifled breech-loading steel Krupp guns, which kept up a duel till the very end of the day, with the siege guns of Sedan across the Meuse. Still further to the right flank, or rather to the east, for our line was a circular one, crescent at first, with Sedan in the centre Hke a star, on the Turkish standard, was an undulating plain, above the village of Bazeilles, terminating about a mile and a half west of Sedan, at the woods near Rubicourt. Midway, that is to say, in a line from Bazeilles north, there is a ravine watered by a tiny brook, which was the scene of a most desperate struggle, and of the most frightful slaughter of the whole battle. This stream, whose name I have forgotten, if it overbad one, runs right behind the town of Sedan, from the woods of Filegreuse. In the north J behind the town, rises a hill dotted with cottages and fruit-laden orchards, and crowned by the woods of Sagavene, which run down to the valley of which I have just spoken. Between ths road and town were several French camps, their whole shelter tents standing clear against the dark forest of treeß in tbe camp. We could see, throughout the day, huge masses of troops which were not used. Even during the height of battle they stood as idle as Fitzjohn Porter at the

second battle of Bull Run. We imagined that they must have been the undisciplined Garde Mobile, whom French Generals dared not bring against the enemy. To the left of the three French camps, separated from them by wooded ravines was a long bleak hill, something like our hills in Long Island. This hill, on which was some of the hardest fights of the day, formed one of the keys of fche French army. When once its crests were covered with the Prussian artillery, the whole town of Sedan was completely at the mercy of German guns, as they were nofc only above the town, but the town was almost within musket range of them. Further to the left lay the village of Illy, set on fire early in the day by the French shells ; near this was a broken railway bridge, blown up by the French to protect their right. It was a conspicuous object. Right above the railroad bridge, on the line to Mezieres, was a wooded hill crowned by the new and most hideous "chateau," as he calls it, of one Monsieur Pave. It was here the Crown Prince and his Staff stood during the day, having a rather more extensive but less central view, and therefore more desirable than was the one where stood the King, Count Bismarck, Von Boon, War Minister, Gen. Moltke, and Generals Sheridan and Forsythe, to aay nothing of your correspondent. Having thus endeavoured to give some faint idea of the scene of what is in all probability the decisive battle of the war, I will give an account of the position of different Corps at the commencement of the action, premising that all tbe movements were ot the simplest possible nature, the object of tbe Prussian Generals being merely to close the crescent of troops with which they began its circle by effecting a junction between the Saxon Corps on their right and the Prussian Corps on their left. This junction took place about noon, near the little village of Illy, or Bazeilleß, behind Sedan, of which I have already spoken. Once this terrible circle was formed, and well formed together, it grew steadily smaller and smaller, until at last the fortifications of Sedan itself were •entered. On the extreme right were the Saxons, one Corps d'Armee, with King William's Guards, who had suffered ao terribly at Gravelotte, where they met the Im - perial Guard, and the King would not allow them to be co cruelly decimated. Justice compels me to state this arrangement was very far indeed from being pleasing to the Ouards themselves, who are very anxious to be in the front of the battle. The Guards and Saxons, then about 50,000 strong, were all day on the right bank of the Meuse, between Kubicourt and la Chapelle, at which latter village Prince Albert of Saxony, who was in command of two corps— which had ieen formed into a little extra army by themselves—arrived by daylight of Thursday. The ground from Rubicourt to the Meuse was occupied by the First Bavarian Corps The second Bavarian Corps extended their front from the Bazeilles railroad bridge to a .point on the highway from Donchery to Sedan, hot far from the little village of Torney, below the hill on which the Crown Prince was placed. The ground from Torch to Illy, through the large village of Floing, •was held by the First and Second Prussian -Corps, belonging to Prince Frederick Charles, and temporarily attached to the army of the Crown Prince. This was the position of the troops about 9 o'clock on Thursday morning, September Ist, and no great advance took place till later than that, for the artillery had at first all the work to do. Still further to the left, near Donchery, were 20,000 Wur tern burgers, ready to cut off the French from Metzieres in case of their making a rush for that fortress. The number of the Prussian troops engaged was -estimated by General Von Moltke at 250,000, and that of the French at 120,000. We know that M'Mahon had with him on Tuesday 120,000 men, that is, four corps — his own, that lately commanded by General DeFailly and under General Leßrun, that of Felix Douay (brother of General Abel Douay, killed at Weissenburg,) and the Fourth Corps, principally composed of the Garde Mobile, the name of whose commander has escaped me M'Mahon, although wounded, commanded in chief on the French side. It is almost needless to say that the real Com-mander-in-chief of the Prussian Army, Von Moltke, with the Crown Prince, and Prince Albert of Saxony, were immediately in command. There were a few stray cannon shots fired, merely sighting shots, however, as the range was soon obtained ; but the real battle did not commence until six o'clock, becoming a sharp artillery fight at nine, when the batteries had each got within easy range and the shells began to do serious mischief. "At 11.55 o'clock, the musketry Are in the valley in the rear of Sedan, which had opened about 11.25, became exceedingly lively, being one continued rattle, only broken by the growling of the guns which played with deadly effect on the Saxon and Bavarian columns. General Sheridan, by whose side I was standing, told me he did not ever remember of hearing such well-sus-tained firing of Bmall arms; it made itself . heard above the roar of the batteries at our feet. At 12 o'clock the Prussian battery of six guns on the slope above, broken by the railway bridge over the Meuse, near Lavallette, had silenced two batteries of French guns at the foot of the bare hills already mentioned near the village of Floring. At ten minutes past 12 o'clock, no longer supported by their artillery, they were compelled to return to Floring, and soon after the junction between the Saxonß and Prussians behind Sedan was announced to us by General "Von Roon, who was eagerly peering through a large telescope, as being safely completed. From this moment the results of the battle could no longer be doubtful. The French were completely surrounded aDd brought to bay. At 12.25 we were all astonished to see crowds ol retreating French infantry on the hill between Floring and Sedan, the Prutsian battery making good practice with percussion shell* amongst their receding ranks; the whole bill,

for a quarter of an hour, was covered with Frenchmen running rapidly. Less than half an hour after, at 12.50, General Von Roon called our attention to another French column in full retreat, to the right of Sedan, on the road leading from Bazeilles to the Sagavenne Woods; they never halted until they got to a small red-roofed house on the outskirts of Sedan itself. Almost at the same moment General Sheridan, who was using my operaglasß, asked me to look at the third French column moving up the road through Sagavenne, above Sedan, doubtless to support the troops defending the important Bizeilles | ravine to the north-east of the town. At one i o'clock the French batteries on the edge of I the wood toward Torney, and above it, opened a vigorous fire on the advancing Prussian columns of the Third Corps, whose evident intention it was to storm the hill northwest of Sagavenne, and so gain the key of the position on that side. At fifteen minutes past one o'clock, yet another French battery near the wood opened on the Prussian column, which was compelled to keep shifting their ground till ready for the final rush at the hills, and in order to avoid offering so good a mark for French shells. Shortly afterward we saw the first Prussian skirmishers on the crest of the Sagavenne hills, above Torney. 'I hey did not seem in strength, and General Sheridan, who was standing behind me, exclaimed, " Oh, the beggars are too weak. They can never hold that position against all those French 1" The General's prophecy soon proved correct, for the French, advancing at least six to one, the Prussians were forced to retreat down the hill to seek reinforcements from the columns which were hurrying to their support. In five minutes they came to the attack again. This time they were in greater force, but still terribly inferior to resist those huge French masses. -' Good heaven 1 the French cuirassiers are going to charge them 1 " cried General Sheridan. And sure enough, a regiment of cuirassiers, their helmets and breast-plate 3fl ishing in the September sun, formed in sections of squadrons, and dashed down, scattering the Prussian skirmishers. Without trying to form in line (squares are never used by Prussian infantry), they received the cuirassiers with a crushing quick fire, at about one hundred yards distance, loading and firing with extreme rapidity and unfailing precision iuto the dense French squadrons. The effect was startling ; over went horses and men in numbers, in masses, in hundreds, and the regiments of proud French cuirassiers went hurriedly back, back, faster than it came — went back scarcely a regiment in strength, and not at all right in form. Its comely array was suddenly changed into shapeless and helpless crowds of flying men. One moment the cuirassiers turned back, and the brave Prussians actually dashed forward in hot pursuit at double quick — infantry plainly pursuing flying cavalry ! Such a thing bas not often been recorded in the annals of war. I know not when an example to compare precisely with thia has occurred. There was no more striking episode in the battle. When the French saw that the cavalry was thus fleeing before the foot soldiers, then they in their turn came forward and attacked the Prussians, who waited quietly, enduring a rapid and telling fire from the chassepots, until their enemies had drawn so near aa to be within a hundred yards from them ; then they returned, with their needle gun, the rapid fire from the chassepots, and the French Infantry could no more endure the Prussian fire than the cavalry to whose rescue they had come. The infantry fled in turn, and followed the cavalry to the place from which they came, that is beyond the ridge some five hundred yards on the way to Sedan, where the Prussians mitrailleurs. — LHere a break occurred in the letter, which was all sent through tbe cable]. There will be a devil of a fight for that crest before it is won or lost," said Sheridan, straining his eyes through bis field glass, at the hill, which was not three miles from where we stood, with the full sun shining on it from behind us. At half-past one, the French cavalry, this time, I fancy, a regiment of carbineers, made another dash at the Prussians, who, on their part, were being reinforced every minute, but they met with the same fate as their brethren in the iron jackets, and were sent with heavy loss to the right-about. The Prussians took advantage of their flight to advance their lines a couple of hundred yards nearer the line which the French infantry held. These adventurous Prussians split into two bodies, leaving a break of a hundred yards in their line. We were not long in seeing the object of their movement, for in a little while, puffs from the crest beyond the skirmishers, followed by a | commotion in the dense French masses, I showed us that " les diables, des Prussians," had contrived, Heaven knows how, to get a couple of four pounders up the steep ground, and were opening upon the French. Something must have at this point gone wrong with the French infantry, for instead of attacking tbe Prussians, whom they still outnumbered by at least two to one, they retired in column on the hill, seeing their only hope of retrieving the day vanishing from before their eyes; then the French cavalry tried to do a little Balaklava business, but without the success of the immortal " Six Hundred." Down came the cuirassiers — this time riding straight for the two field pieces, but before they had got within two hundred yards of the guns, the Prussians formed a line as if on parade, and waited till the furious French horse had ridden out to a point not fifty yards away and then fired. The fire seemed to us to empty the saddles of almost the whole of the French squadron, and the dead so strewed the ground as to block the path of the following squadron, and close before them the direct and dangerous road they meant to follow Their dash at the guns came to a halt, when once this last effort of the French horse had been made and had failed, though pushed gallantly as far as men and horses could go. The French infantry also fell back towards

Sedan; it fell back because it saw that its chance of carrying that fiercely contested hill was gone, und saw that with the Prussians holding the power of crowning it with their guns, the French line in its face could not much longer hold out. In an instant, as the French retired, the whole slope of the ground was covered by swarms of Prussian tirailleurs, who seemed to rise out of the ground, and push forward by the help of every slight roughuess and dent in the surface. As fast as the French went back these reckless enemies followed. After the last desperate charge of the French cavalry, General Sheridan remarked to me that he " never 6aw anything so reckless, so utterly foolish as that last charge — it was sheer murder." The Prussians, after the French infantry fell back, advanced so rapidly that the retreating squadrons of the French cavalry, being pursued too closely, turned suddenly round and charged desperately once again, but it was all of no use — the days of breaking squares are over — and the thin blue line soon stopped the Gallic onset. It struck me as most extraordinary that ar this point the French had neither artillery nor mitrailleurs — especially these latter — to cover their infantry. The position wa* most important, and certainly worth straining every nerve to defend. One thing was clear enough, that the French infantry, after once meeting the Prussians, declined to try conclusions with them again, and that the cavalry were seeking to encourage them by their example. About two o'clock reinforcements came to the Prussians between Tourney and Sedan, and fell back on the Faubourg to the canal just outside the ramparts of the town. " Now the battle is lost to the French," said Sheridan, to the great delight of the Prussian officers. One would fancy that the French had almost heard his words; they had hardly been uttered when there came a lull in the firing all along the line — or circle, as it had now become. Count Bismarck at that moment came over this long disputed hill, between Foray and Sedan, to support the regiments already established there. I was anxiou3 to know what the * ederal Chancellor had done about the threatened neutrality of Belgium, and my curiosity wns soon satisfied " I have told the Belgian Minister of War'" said Count Bismarck, " that as long as the Belgian troops do their utmost to disarm am r number of French soldiers who may cross the frontier, I will strictly respect the neutrality of Belgium ; but if, on the contrary, the Belgians, either through negligence or humanity, do not disarm or capture every man in French uniform who sets his foot in their country, we shall at once follow the enemy into neutral territory with our troops, considering that the French have been the first to violate the neutrality of Belgian soil." I had been down to have a look at the Belgian troops near the frontier and I confess they do not impress me wilh a very high opinion of martial ardour or discipline ; only when they have their great coats on one can see a great deal of paletot, but hardly any soldier. I asked his Excellency whether he thought the Kmperor was in Sedan or not. * No,' was the reply, ' Napoleon is not very wise, but he is not so foolish a3 to put himself in Sedan just now.' For or.cc in his life, Count Bismarck was wrong. At a quarter past three o'clock the King came to where I was seated, saying he thought the French were going to try and break out, just beneath us, on the front of the Second Bavarian Corps. At ten minutes to four General Sheridan told me that Napoleon and Louia were in Sedan. At twenty minutes past three the Bavarians below us not only contrived to get into the fortifications at ir-'edan, but to maintain themselves there, working their way forward from house to house. About four there was a great fight for the possession of the ridge above Bazeilles. That done, Sedan was swept over all sides by the Prussian oannon. This point of vantage was carried by the Prussians at 4.40, and when carried, there could no longer be a shadow of doubt as to the ultimate fate of Sedan. About five o'clock there was a sudden suspension of the cannonade along the whole line. Many where the speculations as to the cause, but nobody seemed to divine the truth. You may judge of our surprise when, five minutes later, we saw a French officer, escorted by two Uhlans, coming at a hard trot up the steep bridge path from Sedan to our post, one of the Uhlans carrying a white duster on a faggot stick as a flag of truce. The messenger turned out to be a French Colonel, who came to ask the terms of surrender. After a very short consultation between the King and General Von Moltke, the messenger was told " in a matter so important as the surrendering of 80,000 men and an important fortress, it is necessary to send an officer of high rank ; you are therefore to return to Sedan, and tell the Governor of that town to report himself immediately to the King of Prussia. If he does not arrive in an hour, the guns will again open fire. You may tell the commandant that there is no use of his trying to obtain any other terms than unconditional surrender." The officer rode back with the message. When he was fairly out of shot, his mission was most eagerly canvassed. At half past six there arose a sudden cry among the members of the King's staff. " Der kaiser ist da," and then came a loud " Hurrah." Soon we began to look anxiously for the second flag of truce, and in ten minutes more General Reilly rode out with a letter for the King of Prussia. As soon as the French General was in sight the slender escort of cuirassiers and dragoons we had with us was drawn in line two deep, behind the King ; in the front of them the staff, and ten yards in front of them again stood his Majesty, King William of Prussia, to receive General Reilly. That officer, as we soon learned, was the bearer of an autograph letter from the Emperor Napoleon to King William. The Emperor of the French wrote as follows : — " As I cannot die at the head of my army, I lay my sword al the feet of your Majesty." Why Napoleon should not die as did thousands of his soldiers, sword in

hand with his face to the foe, is not so clear. On receipt of this most astounding letter, there was a brief consultation between the King, the Crown Prince, (who had come over from his hill, on the arrival of the flag of truce), Count Bismarck, Generals Von Moltke, and Roon. After a few minutes consideration the King sat down on a rushbottomed chair, and wrote a note on another chair, held as a table by two Aides-de-Camps to the Emperor, begging him to come next morning to the King of Prussia's Headquarters at Vendres. While this note was being written, Bismarck came up to General Sheridan, General Forsythe, and mjself, and heartily shook our hands. " Let me congratulate you, most sincerely, Count," said General Sheridan ;" " I can only compare the surrender of Napoleon to that of General Lee at Appomattox Court House." When it came my turn to grasp the Chancellor's hand, I could not help saying, after I had warmly congratulated him, " You cannot but feel a pride, Count Bismarck, in having contributed so largely to the gaining of to-day's victory." " Oh, no, my dear sir," was the mild answer, " I am no strategist, and have nothing to do with the winning of battles. What I am proud of is that the Bavarians, the Saxons, and the Wurtembergers, have not only been on our side, but have had so large a part — the greatest share — of the glory. That they are with us and not against m*, that is my doing. Ido not think the French will say now that South Germany will not fight for our common Fatherland." I asked his Excellency whether Louis was taken with his papa, and was told that no one knew, and then it waa evident that no one cared where that small young man was. When the King had written his letter, he himself handed it to General Heilly, who stood bareheaded to receive it, the Italian and Crimean medals glittering on his breast in the fading sunlight. Queen Victoria's image has not often been seen on the uniform of men surrendering without conditions. At twenty minutes to eight, General Heilly left for the belc-agued town, escorted by the Uhlans. The duster which had served as a ring of truce was offered to me as a souvenir of this most memorable d:*y, but aa it had a 6trong resemblance to other dusters, I declined the proffered relic. Then there was a general call for something to drink, and Count Bismarck's Aid-de-Camp produced two bottles of Belgian beer, one of them his Excellency shared with General Sheridan, General Forsythe, and myself, saying that he drank to the close union of the three great Teutonic peoples. As soon as General Reilly was gone I was anxious to be off to the Belgian frontier, in the hope of getting messages through, but Count Bismarck's Aide-de-Camp assured me that I must wait until morning, and even then be careful not to fall into the hands of the stray soldiers, who were known to be dispersed in all directions along the Be'gian frontier, anl to be little better than bandits so I stopped at the village of Cherong, a mile behind the outpost, throughout the day, and, after doing a little hunting for quarters, actually got a bed. Early next morning I started for Belgium. As I rode along I suddenly came, first on a lot of Uhlans, then two figures in the green and gold Imperial livery. Directly behind them came the travelling carriage of his Majesty, with Napoleon the Third on his way to report himself a prisoner at King William's headquarters at Viendesa, a little village some eight miles from Sedan. THE EMPEROR AFTER THE BATTLE. Dr Russell, special correspondent of the Times, writes as follows from Sedan on Sept. 3 : — When the Emperor, who had passed the weary hours of night, looked out on the morning, he beheld a forest of steel and iron in the valley and hill tops, batteries posted on every eminence, cavalry in all the plains, and far as his eye coulJ reach, hosts of Germans ; his decision was taken at last. Attended by few of his Staff en horseback, his Majesty proceeded along the road from Sedan in a barouche. Count Bismarck was in bed at his quarters at Donchery, when an official rushed in and announced the Emperor was coming to meet him, and to see the King. Count Bismarck rose, dressed hastily, and hastened to meet the Emperor. He was in time to stop the cortege outside the town. I was away in the field, and therefore cannot of my personal knowledge state what occurred. As his Majesty alighted, I hear that Bismarck uncovered his head and stood with cap in hand, and on a sign or request from the Emperor, put it on. The Count replied : " Sire, I receive your Majesty as I would my own Royal Ma- ter." There happened to be near the place where the interview occurred, a few hundred yards outside the town of Donchery, a humble cottage of a hand-loom weaver, of whom there are numbers around Sedan. Bismarck led the way and entered it. The room was not inviting ; the great Count walked up stairs ; the apartment was filled by the handloom and appliances of the weaver, so he descended and found the Emper r sitting on a stone outside. Two chairs were brought out of the cottage ; the Emperor sat down in one, Bismarck took the other and placed it on his Majesty's left hand side. The officers in attendance on their fallen master lay down at some distance away upon a small plat of grass in front of the cottage. The conversation was strange, and , as Count Bismarck has repeated it freely — or the principal parts of it— no doubt it will be soon known and remain forever as historic. Tbe great point to be gained was peace ; but so far as his Majesty was concerned, no assurance could be gained by Bismarck. The Kmperor states that he has no power, and could not negotiate for peace, and could not give orders to the army nor Bazaine, nor tht Ministers. The Empress was Regent and on her and her Ministers must devolve the negotiations ; so Bismarck thereupon remarked tbat it was of no avail to hold any fur thei conversation on political matters with his Majesty, and it would be of no use to see tht

King. The Emperor desired to see the King in person, but Bismarck declared it not possible to accede to his Majesty's wishes, till the capitulation had been signed. Then, as the conversation was becoming rather dangerous, and as the situation was becoming difficult on both sides, he ended it and the interview terminated. The Count went to see the King, and the Emperor withdrew to consult his officers."