DEFEAT OF THE RELIEVING ARMIES.

West Coast Times, Issue 1661, 26 January 1871, Page 2

DEFEAT OF THE RELIEVING ARMIES.

The armies that should have advanced to the relief of Paris had meanwhile been checked. Let me first speak of the Army of the Loire, as the most important Your readers may remember that, after the capture of "Orleans by the Germans this array vanished into obscurity, but its movements had been well concealed, its organisation completed with great promptitude and ability, and when again it emerged, under the leadership of tbe unknown General Aurelles de Paladine, said to be an Orleanist prince, it was found to be handled with skill and to be grown into a formidable boat. Its first movement was directed to tug recapture of Orleans. The

himself outnumbered, had alreiidy begun to retire, when he was attacked a^ Coulmicrs, a village a few miles we&t of Orleans, and a battle ensued, in which the Frencli obtained the victory- the first genuine success of the war. (Jeneral Aurelles had manoeuvred bis troops with admirable effect, but yet failed to cut the conlmilnica-; tious of the Bavarians, who withdrew in 1 good order, though with considerable loss, evacuating Orleans and falling back on Tours, which is thirty miles distant. This victory gave a new impulse to French hopes. But reinforcements came quickly to the relief of Von der Tann, the Duke of Mecklenburg, from Chxrtre?, and presently Prince Frederick Charles, with his veterans from Met/., General Aurelles did not follow up hi* advantage, but threw up an entrenched camp before Orleans, and concentrated his forces, which were then extended on a wide line. All accounts have spoken well of his army, its composition, and its spirit ; but we have not yet any trustworthy account of its numbers and present po ition. It is said to ennnt nearly -200,000 men, manjr of them regulars from Algeria, ot- old soldiers recalled to the service, and to havi a large Artillery force, What we know cert;:ifily is that its columns, resuming their advance, have this week (Monday, Novesnber 28) come into contact with the army of Prince Frederick Charle*, which bars their onward march towards Fontainebleau and Paris, and have suffered a severe checki We awit full details, but although only a portion of either army was engaged, yet it was a great battle. The French brought some 70,000 men into the field, but were repulsed with great loss. German accounts speak of " the main body" of the Loire army as completely routed and retreating in disorder { but if General Aurelles has really the forces under him which we have been led to suppose", his powers of aggression cannot be wholly crippled, and we shall sdon hear of him 1 a£tiin. M. Gambetta, we have seen, speaks of it as ever now " advancing."

In the North the French have been similarly unsuccessful. General Manteuffel, advaucing at the head of 30,000 Germans from Metz, came into collision with the army of the North, '>r a large section of it, on Sunday last (November 27) near Amiens, aud inflicted a severe defeat. The French were driven into their entrenched camp, and the battle was only stayed by the coining on of night. At a council of war the French generals resolved to retreat upon Rouen, and on their abandoning Amiens that important town was the next day taken possession of by tbe Germans. Thus the North of France was completely severed from the centre and west. A late telegram speaks of Amiens as having been again abandoned, while the Germans withdrew to support their comrades before Paris.

Of the Breton army we liave not heard so much, but it is gathering in great strength at Lemans, and its advanced guard lias come as near Paris as Dreux, on the north-west, occasioning quite a scarce at Versailles, but it was soon driven back. The Graud Duke of Mecklenburg is on the alert against it. Count do Keratry, who has great influence in Brittany, commanded this army, but has quarrelled with M. Garabetta, and is not only charged with resigning "in the presence of the enemy," but has returned to Tours in hot anger, intent on impeaching his colleague before a Council of War. Of M. Gambetta, fiery in his speech and resolute in his action, it must be said that he has acquired an astonishing ascendancy, anil that liis boundless energy has in i used new life into Western France.