The idea that General Faidherbe was advancing from the North to attack the investing army, encouraged once more the attempt to break through the lines from within. A fresh sortie, which took place on the 21st under the auspices of General Vinoy, resulted, however, again in disappointment. The Government had had another disturbance to deal with from the party of the "Reds." It did not, at the time, reach formidable proportions, indeed, and Major Flourens was put under arrest: but it served partially to distract the attention of the rulers from the military exigencies of the moment, and owing to some mismanagement of General Bellemare, the French troops, after occupying the points of Drancy and Le Bourget, west of St. Denis, were driven back by the 2nd division of Prussian Guards, under Prince Augustus of Wurtemberg, leaving behind them a thousand unwounded prisoners. We must now relate the position of affairs in the North, and show how General Faidherbe was engaged at the time when his advance was calculated upon by the defenders of Paris. The First German Army, under General Manteuffel, had marched upon Amiens after the fall of Metz, and defeated the French on the 24th of November; and a few days after the citadel of Amiens capitulated. The French Army of the North, under Faidherbe's command, retreated towards Lille, while the Germans advanced to the south-westward, occupied Rouen without resistance on the 5th of December, and exacted a war contribution of seventeen million francs from the city. Manteuffel then pushed detachments out towards Havre, Honfleur, Fécamp, and Dieppe, and threatened Cherbourg. German troops entered Dieppe on December 9th, but having provisioned themselves, left two days after without levying any money requisitions. By the 23rd of December Faidherbe had collected an army 60,000 strong, at Pont de Noyelle, a mile and a half to the north-east of Amiens. On that day he encountered the army of Manteuffel, and from eleven till six p.m. fighting was kept up. Both sides claimed the victory. The French fell back at their own time, taking a north-easterly direction, on the following morning, but without any pressure from the enemy; and it is possible that Faidherbe may have attained his object in merely checking and harassing the Germans. He was far enough, however, from stretching a hand to the beleaguered Parisians. We have to follow, briefly, one other series of military operations, which took its commencement from the fall of Strasburg. After that event, General Werder was in command of a force whose sphere of action extended from the Vosges to the Jura, through the limits of the ancient provinces of Burgundy and Franche Comté. The French generals in these parts were Cambriel, afterwards replaced by Michel, and Garibaldi and his sons Menotti and Ricciotti, with their free bands. In the month of October, the Germans occupied successively Epinal and Vesoul, defeated the French at Ognon (on the 20th), and took possession of Dijon on the 29th. In the beginning of November, they blockaded Belfort, and pushed their advanced guard on to Nuits; but on the 19th, Ricciotti Garibaldi obtained a success at Châtillon, when he fell on the rear of Prince Frederick Charles's army, and took between 100 and 200 prisoners. The loss to the Germans was not great; but it made them tremble for their communications, and the defeat of Menotti Garibaldi by Werder at Pasques, a few days later, was not enough to re-assure them. At any rate, General Werder found that a semidefensive game was the only one he could safely play, and that he must abandon the idea of marching to attack the army of Lyons. On the 18th, the Baden division under General Glumer attacked 19,000 French commanded by Cremer, and stormed the position of Nuits; but not without experiencing losses as great, if not greater than their enemies. Immediately afterwards Werder evacuated Dijon, and moved off in a north-easterly direction. The cause of this retreat would seem to be the untenableness of his position in a place where the inhabitants were so thoroughly hostile to him, and detachments of the enemy ready to harass him on every side. It is surmised, too, that he may have been in fear of an attack by Bourbaki, whose designs, with the army collected under him at Bourges, had been kept profoundly secret. The last day of the year bore telegraphic news that the Germans had evacuated Gray, after a severe engagement with Franc-tireurs. Garibaldi maintained his position at Autun; but his command had not been the brilliant success his admirers anticipated. With a considerable portion of his troops, and with the peasantry generally, he was highly unpopular. Not content with not sharing in their devout and Catholic sympathies, he made no scruple of outraging them; perhaps in so doing, he designedly indulged the proclivities of another portion of his ill-consorted company. Thus he allowed convents and churches to be turned into barracks-a band of 350 Franc-tireurs might be seen lying wrapped in their rugs on the stone floor of a cathedral, smoking and supping. It is scarcely to be wondered at that at Epinac, near Autun, the curate told his flock in the parish church that the Garibaldians were heretics and heathens, and that the Prussians were their real brothers, and should be received as such-an utterance, it may be added, for which the said curate was placed under arrest; though he was afterwards considerately released by order of Gambetta. An outrage took place at Lyons on Dec. 20th. The population was greatly excited by the news of the occupation of Nuits by the Prussians, and the women were particularly agitated, owing to the report that two battalions of the National Guard of Lyons had been entirely destroyed. A public meeting was held the same evening in the Salle Valentino, at which several speakers of the lowest ultra-radical class delivered inflammatory harangues. The meeting resolved to appoint fifteen delegates in each arrondissement, to call out the National Guards of their respective quarters, and to meet in arms on the Place des Terreaux. One delegation was there to invite the participation of the Mobilised Guards of the Chartreux Barracks, another to sound the tocsin and beat the générale, while a third was to ask the Commandant if he would support the agitators or not; and, finally, when the whole body of the Guards should be assembled, the Hôtel de Ville was to be cleared. The delegates met in the Salle Valentino on the morning of the 20th, and many violent women, dressed in black, some carrying red and others black flags, were among the crowd. The men wore red cockades. Commandant Arnaud arrived at the Salle Valentino about noon, and requested to be allowed to enter the hall, but was refused. He was then hustled and struck, and his sword broken. He thereupon drew his revolver and fired twice, but was immediately overpowered. He was tried by the rabble in the Salle Valentino, condemned to death, and immediately taken a short distance off and shot by a party of National Guards. The time occupied in conveying Commandant Arnaud to the place of execution was about ten minutes, but no attempt was made to rescue him. During the months of November and December the following strong places fell into the hands of the Germans. Verdun on Nov. 9th, with 4000 prisoners and 136 guns; Neu Brisach on the 10th, with 5000 prisoners and 100 guns; Thionville on the 24th, with 4000 prisoners and 250 guns; La Fère on the 27th, with 2000 prisoners and 70 guns; Phalsburg on Dec. 12th, with 52 officers, 1837 men, and 65 guns; Montmedy, with 3000 prisoners and 65 guns on or about the 15th. General Talhouet, the Commandant at Phalsburg, showed much spirit. Though informed by the besiegers of the defeat of D'Aurelle on the Loire, he refused to surrender as long as he had any rations left. It The tenacity of the French provincials in defence of their soil, and the enduring authority of the Provincial Government had probably not entered into the calculations of the German leaders when they resolved on prosecuting the war after the victory of Sedan, and making the readjustment of the frontier a sine quâ non. was now evident that their forces, thinned by battle and to some extent by exposure and disease, had more than enough to do in maintaining their lines of investment on the one hand, and fighting off the provincial armies of defence on the other. But the struggle, once fairly embarked in, was to be carried out, cost what it might, and accordingly a new levy of German Landwehr, to the amount of some 200,000 men, was demanded from Germany and sent across the Rhine about the middle of December. Before Christmas the frost set in with a severity such as had not been experienced for many years. The trial to both besieged and besiegers at Paris was terrible. Sentries died at their outposts. Works of offence and defence had to be suspended. At last in the councils of the German army it was resolved that the long threatened bombardment should no longer be delayed. It was necessary to begin with the forts. Fire was first opened from the formidable Krupp guns upon Mont Avron (an improvised work to the north-east of the city, thrown up since the siege began in advance of the forts on the Belleville plateau) on the 27th of December. After one day's bombardment Mont Avron ceased replying, and on the 29th the 12th German army corps marched up and occupied the position. When the year closed the bombardment was being vigorously and successfully carried on from this position on the neighbouring forts of Rosny and Le Nogent. The unexpected ease with which the capture of Mont Avron was made was owing to the French having been taken utterly by surprise on the occasion. The Germans, working through ground frozen six inches deep, had constructed their batteries so skilfully and secretly, under the cover of trees and walls, that their position was completely masked, and when the bombardment opened, the astonished French found themselves exposed to a cross fire, one battery sweeping their flank, pouring in shot and shell, whilst the garrison, unable to change front under the heavy fire, could not reply with a single shot. Accordingly they made a rapid retreat that same night, taking some guns with them, and spiking the rest. Some of the German shells that were thrown into Belleville were computed to have gone a distance of nearly six English miles. The siege of Paris was now officially recognized as "active" at the Prussian head-quarters. Lieut.-General von Kameke was appointed chief engineer, and Major-General Prince Hohenlohe was placed in command of the batteries. Colonels Rieff and Bartsch were nominated as chief assistants. It seems that the failure of the sortie on the 21st December had caused profound discouragement within the walls of Paris. An inhabitant, writing on the 26th, says, "Belleville is causing some uneasiness again, and in spite of the check received in October, the leaders of the 'Red' party are once more clamouring for the Commune as the only means for saving France. In public meetings and in the columns of the Combat and the Réveil new 31st of October is openly proclaimed, and we are menaced with an army of 60,000 combatants of both sexes, who intend to establish a government consisting of 400 Republicans, with Garibaldi for president. Flourens is to be drawn from his prison, Felix Pyat from his cellar, Blanqui from his sewer, and Delescluze from his mairie, and with these promising elements the national system is to be reinvigorated and the country rescued. On all sides there is a cry that the Government should give some symptom of vigour, and not go on glimmering feebly. It is almost placed beyond doubt that the Prussians are accurately informed of every move made in Paris, although General Trochu, when he is about to make a grand display, has the gates hermetically closed." Meanwhile the deathrate in Paris had reached to double its ordinary amount. Provisions were getting dearer and dearer. Trochu's grand "plan" of deliverance seemed no nearer its accomplishment. That expectations of a speedy capitulation of the French capital now began to take shape in the minds of outside observers in general is no matter of astonishment. CHAPTER IV. GERMANY.-North German Parliament-Question of admitting Baden to the Bund- GERMANY. On the 1st of January, Count Bismarck entered on his duties as Foreign Minister, no longer of Prussia, but of the North German Confederation; henceforth holding that office in addition to his newly resumed functions as Chancellor. Two subordinates were appointed for him in the Chancellorship, whose business it should be to attend to minor details; these were Herr von Thile, who was likewise to act as Secretary for Foreign Affairs; and Herr von Delbrück, to act as Secretary for Home Affairs. At the opening of the parliamentary year in Bavaria and Saxony the anti-Prussian party seemed to be somewhat in the ascendant. The new Chamber which met at Munich elected as President the Ultramontane Candidate, Herr Weis, by a large majority over Barth, who was proposed by the Liberals. On opening the Diet the King declared his intention of upholding Bavarian independence. At Dresden the first opposition to the policy advocated at Berlin was taken in the Upper House, on the ground of the new federal penal code. Count Hohenthal opposed the extension of the agreement enabling the North German Confederation to dictate laws regarding the internal affairs of the separate States. Professor Heintze censured the proposed mode of dealing with political crimes, as tending to lower the separate States to the condition of provinces, and making their rulers merely mediatised federal princes. Against the strong appeals of the Ministers, also, a motion was carried in the First Chamber, by a small majority, in favour of disarmament. In the Prussian Diet itself Count Bismarck had to encounter opposition from the non-centralizing party, who wished to continue the separate sittings of the Diet after the assembling of the North German Parliament. Such persistence, he warned them, in treat |