of the Empress, and is now the almoner of the press; but why he wears jack-boots, why he capers about on a fiery horse, why he has a staff of aides de camp, and why he has two grooms, are things which no one seems to know. He patronises generals and admirals, doctors and commissariat officers, and they submit to be patronised by him." The strength of the Germans before Paris was augmented, just previous to Christmas, by a body of Prussian sailors who were sent from Kiel to man the gunboats captured on the Loire. They were reviewed before the Prefecture at Versailles, on the morning of December 22nd, by the King and the Crown Prince, together with Prince Adalbert, Admiral of the Fleet. The sailors were armed with needle-guns, and carried knapsacks like soldiers. Prussia has long been desirous of taking rank as a great naval Power, and the hope of gaining a more advantageous maritime position was undoubtedly one of the reasons which determined the war with Denmark in 1864. The King was probably glad to make an exhibition of his naval force, even though on a small scale, before the eyes of the jealous French; and he may have hoped that something might be done with the gunboats to balance the preponderance of France in this respect. The appearance of the men was satisfactory; but the progress of the war gave them no opportunity of distinguishing themselves. The attempt of General Faidherbe to relieve Paris from the north, which was made in conjunction with the sorties just described, ended as unfortunately as that of the Army of the Loire at the commencement of the month. Yet this result could hardly be attributed to want of ability or experience on the part of the commander. General Louis Léon César Faidherbe was fifty-two years of age at the period now being described. He was a native of Lille (where his head-quarters had been but recently established), and, after receiving a portion of his education in the college of that city, he entered the Polytechnic School in 1838, and afterwards studied at the Military School of Metz, which he left in 1842, with a lieutenant's commission in the First Regiment of Engineers. He distinguished himself greatly in Algeria, and in 1852 was sent to Senegal, where he acted with so much vigour and intelligence that he was made Governor of the colony in the following year. At that time the French settlers were much disturbed by a fanatic calling himself the Prophet El-Hadji-Omar, who 8r announced that his mission was to found a Mussulman Empire in Central Africa. This native chieftain was subdued by Faidherbe, who afterwards left Senegal to command the subdivision of Sidi-ben-Abbas; but the affairs of the former colony prospered so badly after his departure, that he was recalled in 1863, with the rank of brigadier-general. In 1865, however, the state of his health necessitated his removal from the poisonous climate of Senegal, and he was therefore sent to take the highest command in the subdivision of Bône. It will thus be seen that Faidherbe was a man conversant with affairs, with government, and with military enterprise. He had also written much on the manners, language, and history of the Moorish races, and on the topography, geology, and archæology of those parts of Africa with which he was personally acquainted. After the defeat of the original Army of the North, before Amiens, in the closing days of November, the force was rapidly reorganised by its new commander, and a fresh plan of campaign was formed, or rather a definite plan was substituted for a mere system of desultory movements. In the second week of December, the army left Lille, and shortly afterwards passed St. Quentin and La Fère in its southward march, but then suddenly turned to the north-west. According to French accounts, Faidherbe had with him. four divisions, amounting altogether to 35,000 men; the Germans immediately opposed to him appear to have numbered 30,000. According to German accounts, the French had twice as many men as their opponents; but this was probably an exaggeration or a misapprehension. Faidherbe was known to have taken up a position to the north of Amiens, and the German forces-forming a de-. tachment, under von Göben, of the army of General Manteuffel-left Château Blangy-Trouville at five o'clock A.M. on the 23rd of December. A bitter wind blew across the open plain traversed by the men, horses, and artillery. This plain was bordered by a narrow but long line of wood, separated by a small river from a hill extending from Querrieux to Busy, a distance of about three miles. On this hill the French were drawn up, with more than seventy heavy guns already in position. The day had now broken, and the nature of the opposition they had to encounter was visible to the Prussian troops. The Fifteenth Division, under the command of General von Kummer, was ordered to advance and give battle, while the Sixteenth Division was to move on the right wing of the French, and endeavour to surround it. The enemy was still at a considerable distance; but, the plan of action having been settled, the Germans moved forward, and, after about an hour's marching, got near enough to the advanced guard to exchange shots. A heavy artillery fire ensued, and the French aimed so well that they materially damaged the Prussian guns, and even silenced one of the batteries. Meanwhile, the infantry had taken the villages of Querrieux and Pont-Noyelles by storm. The positions were not relinquished by the French without a most determined struggle, and the dead and wounded of both nationalities thickly covered the earth. The Prussians appeared to be gaining ground towards the close of the day, when suddenly, as the shades of night were closing over the scene, a most awful artillery fire was reopened from the side of the hill. Only a very feeble reply could be made by the Prussians, for they had expended their ammunition; and the French, perceiving the disadvantage at which they had their enemy, poured down the slope, and forcibly attacked Querrieux. A portion of the Prussian infantry was driven back; but the Fusilier Battalion of the 65th Regiment ultimately checked the further advance of the French. Two attempts were made by Faidherbe's troops to retake the village, but both ended in failure. It was a murderous struggle with the sword and bayonet, not a shot being fired; and the men, maddened by the dreadful fury of conflict, fought on in the midst of flaming houses, for the village had been set on fire in several places. In the end, the Prussians retained possession of Querrieux. Hundreds of vehicles were sent out from Amiens to convey the wounded to the hospital which had been improvised in the rooms of the Museum. The highway from Querrieux to Amiens was covered with wagons, carriages, carts, and other kinds of vehicles, crowded with desperately injured soldiers. The distance traversed on this road of death and agony was twelve miles. The hospital, though capable of accommodating several hundred patients, was soon overfilled, and it was necessary to deposit several of the sufferers in the passages. The result of the action was indecisive. Neither side had gained any positive advantage of a nature to determine the issue, and it appeared probable that the fight would be continued on the following day. General von Göben fully expected that he would be attacked in the morning. For the present, he determined not to renew the offensive on his own part, but to stand on his guard until the arrival of fresh regiments. General Manteuffel at once proceeded to the spot with reinforcements; at the same time, General von Senden was advancing from St. Quentin, in the direction of Corbie, with a division, and Prince Albrecht was coming from Paris with the cavalry of the Guard. Nothing was done on the 24th, and on the 25th the French quietly moved off in the direction of Arras, to the north-east. Their commissariat was defective, as was frequently the case during the war; and this is said to have had more to do with the retreat of Faidherbe than considerations of a strategical nature. The general made an imposing demonstration on the top of the hill; fired rifles and cannon, and sent a number of cavalry galloping to and fro along the line. To these manifestations the Prussians made no reply; and while the feint was being assiduously carried on at the summit of the hill, the main body of the army was secretly in movement behind. When all had disappeared, the field was found to be in a terrible state. Hundreds of dead, contorted with the agony of violent dissolution, lay about, and the ground was littered with knapsacks, képis, helmets, broken weapons, tents, and uniforms. Both sides claimed the victory on the 23rd; but it is certain that Faidherbe, though not driven from his positions, found it convenient, or perhaps even necessary, to retreat two days later, and it is therefore obvious that the Germans had the best of the encounter, as far as the ultimate result was concerned. If dependence can be placed on their own assertions, they took 1,000 prisoners. The French version of the engagement was given in General Faidherbe's report, dated December 26th, which said :— "The army had two days previously gone into cantonments at Corbie, and in the villages situated along the left bank of a little brook called La Hallue, which falls into the Somme at Daours. They had selected as the battle-field the heights which skirt the left bank, thus compelling the enemy to cross the valley, when, coming from Amiens, he debouched by the left bank. General Faidherbe ordered the troops only to offer a slight resistance in the villages with a few skirmishers, and at once to retire to the commanding heights in the rear. This order was punctually executed, and about eleven A.M. the two armies were in sight of each other, separated by a valley, narrow and swampy. They commenced cannonading each other over the houses, each side opening fire from seventy or eighty guns, and at the same time the enemy's skirmishers, having penetrated into the houses of the villages, commenced exchanging shots with ours. Towards half-past three P.M., finding the cannonading had begun to slacken on both sides, the order was given along the whole line to our infantry to charge down upon the enemy, and drive him out of the villages to the positions in the rear. That order was vigorously and brilliantly executed. At the extreme DEC., 1870.] SKIRMISH AT BOLBEC. 83 left, the Moulac division cleared Daours and Vecque- siderable dimensions was going forward at Bolbec, mont; the du Bessol division captured Pont-Noyelles a town in the vicinity of Havre. On the 23rd, the and Querrieux. The Robin division (Mobilised Gardes head-quarters of the French commander, Colonel du Nord) entered the village of Behancourt, and finally de Beaumont, were established at Melamare, and the Derroja division, at the right, charged the villages it was known that a Prussian corps, coming from of Bavelincourt and Prehercourt, pursuing the enemy for some distance. At five P.M. our success was every- Fonville was advancing along the flat, open country where complete; but night had come on; it was no longer possible to distinguish friends from foes, and the Prussians took advantage of this circumstance to effect a re-entry into Daours, Querrieux, and Behancourt, without encountering any resistance. Our troops, having retaken all their positions of the previous day, passed the night in them, and remained the following day until two P.M., to see if the enemy would attempt to renew the engagement, which, however, he did not. A few rifle-shots were exchanged at long ranges. After thus having confirmed its victory, the army proceeded to its cantonments between Corbie and Albert. Our young troops have suffered much from the severity of the weather and the privations inevitable under the circumstances. The bread which was served out to the men on the battle-field was frozen, and consequently uneatable. The losses may be estimated approximately at 200 men killed, and 1,000 or 1,200 wounded, the latter for the most part slightly. We do not know what losses the enemy has suffered; but the fire of our artillery, which was excellently served, must have sorely tried him. Some prisoners and wounded men were left in our hands. A few days' rest in our excellent cantonments have been granted to the Army of the North." which extends between Noinlot and Bolbec. The French outpost at Roncherolles, in front of Bolbec, was driven back on the morning of the 24th by the Prussian advanced guard, and at eight o'clock A.M. the engagement was general. The left wing of the French forces (which were in all about 6,000 strong) was confronted by a large body of Prussians, and the sharpshooters of the former were compelled to fall back on the farm of La Jolie, which stands on an eminence, and which was protected by two French guns. These dismounted a Prussian gun, and inflicted serious losses on the Germans. The centre column of the same forces was stationed at the same farm, and, combined with the left wing, it kept up a heavy musketry fire. Matters seemed to be going fairly for the French, when an unaccountable panic fell on the army, and entirely changed the fortune of the day. Colonel de Beaumont, according to an account from Havre, suddenly fancied, without any reason, that 10,000 Prussians threatened his left wing, and at once came to the conclusion that a retreat on Havre was the only means of safety. In an order of the day, issued from Lille, Gene- A council of war was held, and the colonel spoke ral Faidherbe congratulated his troops on their so positively on the subject that the inferior officers gallant conduct, and on what he termed "the did not like to take the responsibility of opposing glorious success" which had been their reward. his decision. Accordingly, the French troops, The artillery had been excellently handled, and though they greatly outnumbered the enemy, were the infantry, after retaining their positions with firm- ordered to retire; and at eight o'clock in the ness under the fire of the enemy, showed the evening, after a forced march, they entrenched greatest vigour in the attack at close quarters. themselves behind the works of defence by which The Mobiles and the Mobilised Guards, "seasoned Havre was protected. M. Ramel, the Sub-Prefect from day to day by marches and engagements," of Havre, who had seen the hasty retreat of the had proved that they could be relied on. All had troops, spent a part of the night in reconnoitring borne the rigours of the temperature with resigna- and investigating into the facts of the case; but tion. So far, the order of the day looked fairly; the 10,000 Prussians were not to be found, and the but the final paragraph had an ugly aspect. It Sub-Prefect returned to Havre in a fury of rage. ran:-"The General Commanding-in-Chief has Colonel de Beaumont was of course at once superascertained that men, small in number, forgetting seded by another officer. The narrative of the all their duties, disbanded themselves before and affair to which allusion has already been made says after the battle. Severe examples will be made." that the troops behaved thoroughly well, but that, The want of spirit of these runaways, however, owing to the incompetency of the commanding must not be allowed to detract from the general officers, the affair ended in a comparative failure, character of the Army of the North, which, on the when, with better management, it would have been whole, certainly behaved well. easy to rid a great part of the Lower Seine of the While the armies of Generals von Göben and invaders. On the withdrawal of the French, the Faidherbe were watching each other on the 24th Prussians entered Bolbec, and seized the Mayor, of December, and the latter was quietly making the municipal clerks, and several of the notables of preparations to retreat, a skirmish of not incon- the town; but they were released after two hours' DEC., 1870.] THE PRUSSIANS IN NORMANDY. 85 detention, and the German troops soon quitted the proceedings in various directions given in the place. On the same day (December 24th) another skirmish took place at Yvetot, to the north-east of Havre. A detachment of General Göben's troops, about 1,800 in number, was stationed at that town, when it was attacked by 3,000 Frenchmen, advancing from Havre under Colonel Macmanard. An artillery and cavalry fight ensued, and the French were driven back, with a loss of 200 Publicateur of Louviers, in the department of Eure, which said :-"On the 8th Louviers was occupied by Prussian troops coming from Andelle. Twenty scouts on horseback arrived at about one o'clock, and announced at the Mairie that a column of from 5,000 to 6,000 men would pass the night at Louviers. The detachment, under General von Massow, composed of two regiments, five squadrons, and two batteries, entered at four in the afternoon. prisoners, as far as the fortifications of the town from which they had set out. These fortifications were supposed to be impregnable. The lines, according to a correspondent of the Standard, were about six miles in length, and could only be approached by two roads, both of which could be swept by batteries, with which might be combined the flanking fire of the men-of-war in the harbour. The city certainly presented a formidable obstruction to the Prussians; but in most other parts of Normandy the latter had their own way with but little opposition. The ease with which they entered towns, obtained supplies, and struck terror into the population, is vividly shown by an account of their The officers wrote with chalk on the doors the number of men and horses that each householder would have to lodge. The soldiers at once entered their quarters. The muskets of the firemen and the National Guards were destroyed by order of the general. The Prussians left next morning at seven, after taking the horses of the proprietors on to Evreux. On the night of that day, a party of cavalry passed through the town. On the 10th, 500 infantry slept at Louviers, and went the next morning towards Rouen. A detachment from the direction of Pacy passed the night of the 11th at Louviers; and on the following morning 3,000 or 4,000 Prussians, coming from Vernon, with cavalry |