the collection of a great deal of information as to the movements and plans of the enemy, and that at but a small cost of life. Several skirmishes took place from day to day, with varying fortune, but it would be tedious to enumerate them. Emperor seems to have discovered this fact before the actual opening of the campaign, and it may account for a certain tone of gravity observable in his speeches and proclamations. His own delay in joining the army may have been unavoidable, but On the evening of the 28th of July the Emperor it was certainly unfortunate. Utter failure in or(who is described by an eye-witness as looking ganisation, however, was the most disastrous cirold and ill, with his head sunk on his breast) arrived cumstance of the time. A pamphlet, supposed to at Metz to assume the command. He imme- be written or inspired by the Emperor, was pubdiately issued the following address to the army:-lished at Brussels about the end of October, which “Soldiers!—I am about to place myself at your head to defend the honour and soil of the country. You go to fight against one of the best armies in Europe; but others who were quite as worthy were unable to resist your bravery. It will be the same again at the present time. The war which is now commencing will be a long and severe one, since it will have for the scene of its operations places full of fortresses and obstacles; but nothing is too difficult for the soldiers of Africa, the Crimea, China, Italy, and Mexico. You will again prove what the French army, animated by the sentiment of duty, maintained by discipline, and inspired with love of country, can perform. Whatever road we may take beyond our frontiers we shall find glorious traces of our fathers. We will prove ourselves worthy of them. The whole of France follows you with her ardent wishes, and the eyes of the whole world are upon you. The fate of liberty and civilisation depends upon our success. Soldiers let each one do his duty, and the God of armies will be with us. "NAPOLEON. "The Imperial Head-quarters, Metz, July 28." throws an extraordinary light on the state of the French army at the commencement of the war. According to this singular statement, the Emperor found himself constantly paralysed by want of information as to the position of the enemy. He discovered that his army was neither so large nor so well appointed as he had supposed. He was hampered by contradictory counsels, and embarrassed by want of discipline. His original planknown only to himself, Marshal MacMahon, and Marshal Leboeuf-was to cross the Rhine into Baden, to separate Southern from Northern Germany, and to secure the alliance of Italy and Austria by a brilliant success. The scheme was in itself not at all a bad one, but the greater quickness and preparedness of the Prussians crushed it in the bud. The pamphlet avers that, at the time of the taking of Saarbruck, on the 2nd of August, the Army of the Rhine, exclusive of the corps then in course of formation at Châlons and Belfort, but far from complete, numbered only 140,000 men, instead of 250,000. MacMahon's First Corps the writer describes as principally composed of regiments from Africa-" veterans covered with renown;" yet, after their defeat at Wörth, at which they performed prodigies of valour, they were so vividly impressed by the tremendous effects of the Prussian artillery, that they left the field "with dissatisfied and mutinous feelings." It is further recorded of de Failly's corps, that it "lost without a fight a portion of its equipments, and There can be no question that the delay in almost all its baggage," and presented an appearopening the campaign operated very disadvantage-ance of indifference and disorganisation of the most ously to the French. It is peculiarly the quality of French soldiers that they require to act with promptitude and dash-to be free to spring at once on the enemy, and carry all before them by suddenness of onslaught and fury of advance. Their ardour is apt to die out when they have to stand long on the defensive; inaction makes them nervous and depressed. At the outset of the Prussian war they waited for the Emperor until they began to think that all was not right; and their surmise was correct. Never was a great army worse prepared for a most formidable enterprise. The The King of Prussia set out for the seat of war on the 31st, after having issued a farewell proclamation, in which he spoke of fighting for Germany's honour and the preservation of her most precious possessions, again protested that the war did not emanate from him, expressed the resolve of the nation to accept the battle for the defence of the Fatherland, and granted an amnesty for all political crimes and offences. alarming kind. Of Douay's corps of reserve we are told that "its solidity was not such as might have been desired;" and the Emperor says that he was deceived as to the capacity of the War Office for sending him reinforcements. "By the bold initiative of the Germans," he or his literary representative writes, "we were caught in the act of formation." Seeing the perilous nature of the situation, the Emperor determined, after his earlier discomfitures, to retreat on Châlons. M. Emile Ollivier, however, strongly opposed such a course; and when Canrobert arrived at Metz with the reserve, it was resolved to make another attempt. | generals seemed to have thought they were going But again the Prussians were too quick, and disaster followed disaster to the end.* to a succession of brilliant promenades. On the field itself they could not forget the luxuries and We have thus briefly anticipated the course of the dissipations of Paris. They rode about in events in order to show what, in the opinion of the carriages, accompanied by cooks and women of Emperor himself (assuming the authenticity of the notorious character, and insisted on having every pamphlet), were the causes of the utter military day at dinner eight courses served on plate. Who collapse of France. The truth is that the army can wonder that the old energy and readiness of had been greater on paper than in fact. It had the French soldier vanished under such influences? been jobbed in all its departments, and was wanting in organisation, in discipline, and in appointments. It had committed the great fault of undervaluing its enemy, and was deficient in unity of command and intelligent vigour of direction. The French had been living for a long while in the fool's paradise of a belief in their own invincibility; and in worshipping the glittering shadow of former renown they had lost the substance of present power. With some honourable exceptions, the Campagne de 1870: Des Causes qui ont amené la Capitu lation de Sédan. Par un Officier attaché à l'Etat MajorGénéral. Bruxelles: 1870. The Emperor, according to a recent writer, "went from Paris to the Army of the Rhine, expecting to find it all perfection, and ready to undertake a glorious campaign. He found it really in cantonments, corps isolated from corps, and needing several days to consolidate and combine it." The battalions were far below their proper strength, owing to the advantage which had evidently been taken of the permission to purchase exoneration from service by fines to the State-fines which were not appropriated, as they should have been, to increasing the bounties to recruits. The men themselves were, in several regiments, below the mark within the Rhenish-Prussian frontier, but it was repulsed. The attempt was renewed on the 2nd of August, and with success. Saarbruck is situated on the river Saar, which waters a country abounding in fortresses. The country itself is both beautiful and interesting. The ancient and picturesque city of Trèves (or Trier, as the Germans call it) is situated some miles to the north of Saarbruck; and the landscape, in many parts of the valley through which the river flows, has a charmingly pastoral character. "From Saarburg, with its mediaval fortress of the prince-bishop of Tours," says the author of "On the Trail of the and workmen smeared with red from the caps to the boots. Between these industrial centres the river is lovely and peaceful enough, with kingfishers and water-weeds flitting about red stones patched with orange lichens. Wherever it narrows to a pond, a fisher is pretty sure to be at work with his primitive tub and sink-net; and every now and then, where it spreads to a shallow, there is a solemn heron, with his eye riveted eagerly on the muddy waters. The valley widens to a plain where Saarlouis shelters among its earthworks and ditches. In the swampy fields great herds of cattle plash disconsolately about. In scenery, climate, accessories, and everything else, the place is a study for a Dutch landscape painter." The country is rich in coal-fields, which, together with its numerous and very powerful fortresses, rendered it a most desirable acquisition for the French. The Emperor Napoleon, finding it necessary to do something to stimulate the spirit of his troops, as well as to appease the popular impatience, and seeing that the town of Saarbruck was a station of some importance to the Germans, who had here the command of three lines of railway, on which troops and stores were being rapidly moved, determined to take the place by a vigorous assault. Between nine and ten o'clock on the morning of the 2nd of August, the French moved up large bodies of troops, and occupied the heights overlooking the town. A good deal of wood surrounded the place, and from this ambuscade the Prussian cannon was heard at intervals as General Bataille, of the 2nd corps, advanced with his men. The ground soon began to be dotted with the killed and wounded, and stretchers and ambulances made their appearance along the route. Suddenly a loud cheer burst forth to the right, on the road running from Forbach (in the French territory) to Saarbruck. The Emperor had arrived, and was seen riding along the front of the columns. General Frossard, in his report of the action, says that "Lieutenant-Colonel Thebeaudin, with two battalions of his regiment (the 67th), in advancing to the attack of the village of St. Arnual, found it strongly occupied and defended by batteries of position planted on the right bank of the Saar. To demolish this artillery, General Micheler ordered into action a battery of the 15th Regiment, which effectually opened fire on the Prussian guns. Supported, by a battalion of the 40th Regiment of the Line, and by the company of Sappers and Miners of the 3rd Division, materially assisted by the flank movement of Colonel Mangin (who, with the remainder of the 67th Regiment and the 66th Regiment, descended the heights on the left), Lieutenant-Colonel Thebeaudin carried the village of St. Arnual, and occupied it with a battalion of the 40th Regiment and the company of Sappers and Miners. The battalions of the 67th, with great élan, rushed up the slopes of the hillock of St. Arnual, and established themselves on the crest opposite Saarbruck. The 66th, with equal resolution, took possession of the heights up to the exercising ground, driving the enemy from all his positions. At the same time, General Bataille rapidly moved his 1st Brigade to the rising ground on the left of the Saarbruck road, connecting his movement with that of the 2nd Brigade by advancing a battalion of the 33rd regiment. Advancing in line, the battalions of the 23rd and 8th Regiments, their front covered by numerous skirmishers, resolutely carried the many ravines which run across the ground, which is very difficult and thickly wooded. One battalion of the 8th Regiment, working its way across the woods, fol lowed the railway as far as the village of Frotrany, where it effected its junction with the other battalions of the regiment, and together they attacked the exercising-ground on the right. On gaining the heights, General Bataille planted one of his batteries in front of the lines of the 66th Regiment, and another on the exercising ground, to fire on the railway station, and silence the enemy's artillery, which had taken up a position on the left of Saarbruck." This had the desired effect; and after some more artillery practice, a battery of mitrailleuses of the 2nd Division threw the German columns of infantry into disorder. Thick columns of smoke from burning houses rose from out the trees, and the roar of projectiles was heard unceasingly along the whole line. A correspondent of a French paper describes the noise produced by the mitrailleuse as "a continuous, dry, shrieking, terrible sound." The effect in other respects was remarkable. Battalions were scattered with great loss, the remainder flying in all directions. When the French had gained the heights commanding the town, a battery of mitrailleuses was placed in position in presence of the Emperor and the Prince Imperial. Shortly afterwards a Prussian detachment marched over the railway bank at a distance of 1,600 mètres. The mitrailleuses fired, and in a moment the detachment was dispersed, leaving half its number on the ground. A second detachment subsequently suffered the same fate, and the spirits of the French army were raised by the apparent excellence of the weapon, now first tried in active warfare. The Finding the position no longer tenable, the Prussians began to evacuate the town. French entered before the evacuation was com plete, and established themselves in the parade. ground, where they planted their artillery, and directed their fire upon the railway station and the entrenched places. The town was by this time on fire in three or four directions, and a running fight between the two forces was for some while maintained in the streets. This part of the struggle, however, was not very long or very serious. The Prussians, according to the French accounts, made their way out of the town, and took their course along the paths which skirt the heights on the other side of the Saar, pursued by the fire of the mitrailleuses. All was over by about one o'clock, and in a little while men from either side came in under flags of truce to reclaim the dead and wounded. It was with reference to this affair at Saarbruck that the Emperor Napoleon sent to the Empress a telegraphic message, which provoked a good deal of comment at the time. It ran : "Louis has just received his baptism of fire. He was admirably cool, and in no way affected. A division of General Frossard's has taken the heights which command the left side of Saarbruck. The Prussians made a short resistance. We were in the front line, and the bullets and cannon-balls fell at our feet. Louis has kept a bullet which fell quite close to him. Some of the soldiers shed tears on seeing him so calm. We lost only one officer and ten men killed. "NAPOLEON." in agitation or in reverence to the departed. In the evening, after his return from the combat, the Prince made a pen-and-ink sketch of the engagement, which he inscribed and presented to a son of Baron Lambert, a great friend of his Imperial Highness, then serving as a private in one of the regiments of Guards. A good deal of indignation has been wasted on the alleged cruelty of the Emperor in taking his son, a boy of fourteen, to the war. But it seems to be generally agreed among European Imperial and Royal families that the heir to the throne must be a military officer; and, if this is to be anything more than a matter of form, it is as well that the youth should have his nerves accustomed early to the fiery ordeal of actual conflict. In all armies, and in all navies, youths are employed as well as men; and the case is no worse for a prince than for a drummer-boy or a midshipman. The whole practice of war is saddening and horrible; but it is idle to concentrate upon special incidents the detestation which belongs to the entire system. The Emperor returned to Metz in the evening. A French writer says that the chassepôts were terrible, and that they carried 1,000 or 1,200 mètres, while the Prussian bullets were only effective at 800. Of the mitrailleuses he says that they "proved masterpieces in respect of death and carnage," adding :-"From our esplanade we saw the shower of balls strike down battalions as a waterspout ravages and uproots a field of corn. It was not a battle, properly so called, for the Prussians never waited for us. They beat a retreat before us at racing pace." The Prussians, on their side, say that they had only one battalion in the place, and that it was under orders to retreat fight-proceeded to throw up a few entrenchments in ing. It was a "weak advanced guard," and it evacuated the town in good order, and took up another post of observation. The whole affair is described as an "outpost skirmish." The loss sustained by the Prussians is described by themselves as consisting of only two officers and seventy men. There were some rather unworthy attempts to diminish the value (such as it was) of the French access. The action, it is true, was not of an important character; but to describe it as nothing more than an outpost skirmish was surely disingenuous. It is certain that the Prussians thought the town worth defending; that for some hours they did their utmost to defend it; and that finally they were driven back. That the French obtained complete possession of Saarbruck is denied by some; though, in the face of the Prussian statement that the garrison evacuated the town, it seems difficult to maintain this view. The fact appears to be that the Prussians still lurked in the village of St. Johann, on the further side of the Saar, and in the thick woods beyond, from which their sharpshooters kept up a galling fire on the French. General Frossard, however, Among the incidents of the fight, one in particular should be mentioned. The Emperor and the Prince Imperial, followed by two generals and six officers of the staff, advanced to within three hundred yards of the Prussian needle-gun, and stood there for some time, in spite of the rain of bullets. The Prince, slightly overcome by the sight of the dead bodies of two soldiers, raised his képi, either front and flank of the French position; he also established some epaulements, to protect the guns and gunners. Shortly after the action, a great many exaggerated statements were put forth, to the effect that this small open town had been mercilessly bombarded by the French, and reduced to a heap of smoking ruins. It was afterwards made manifest that very few shells had been thrown into the town itself, and that the damage to the houses was but slight. When it was seen that the Prussians were retreating, the Emperor ordered the mitrailleuses to cease firing, because of the injury they would have done to the townspeople. The respective excellence of the French and German arms of precision was first put to the test in this affair of Saarbruck. The result for the time appeared to be in favour of the French; but subsequent operations of the war led to some degree of doubt. Up to the last moment, a great deal of mystery was maintained by the French Government as to the exact nature of the mitrailleuse; but it has been described as a fourpounder gun, divided into twenty-five departments |