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of Sedan. The fate of the handful of bolder civilian inhabitants who awaited their doom at Bazeilles, and paid a terrible penalty for their temerity, proved the comparative advantage of flight—in the one respect of remaining alive.

But flight and abandonment of their village homes meant complete and absolute temporary destitution to all alike. For every single garment, utensil, article of furniture, and commodity of any kind was made a clean sweep of by the hosts of Jewish camp-followers which swarmed in the rear of the invading armies.

At Bazeilles, out of 600 substantial stone dwellings, hardly six were unconsumed by the flames. There it was that our relief was of course most desperately needed, and that for the whole duration of the autumn and winter of that année terrible.

But in some thirty villages, although the bulk of the houses were found standing by the fugitives returning from their forest retreat, the distress that ensued from almost total disappearance of food and raiment was hardly less crying that at Bazeilles, whose inhabitants were mostly billeted about in the surrounding villages.

I say “mostly”—for, in order to test the fact for myself, I went round with the Garde Champêtre one stormy November evening between 8 and 10 p.m. to search for inhabitants, reported to be clinging to the blackened ruins of their homes. With great dificulty—for it was pitch-dark—we penetrated through yawning apertures, down into about a dozen damp cellars, where, lying in rows, stretched on the ground like bottles, we found in some cases three generations of families in flimsy summer garments, without any other covering. At the back of one of the ruined premises our lantern flashed its light on a festoon of dark red roses hanging over a charred wall.

Not only to the terrified villagers, but also to faint-hearted soldiers, did the Forest of the Ardennes serve as a welcome refuge during the terrible battle-time, not confined to the historic September 1, but extending over several previous days, including the important battle of Beaumont on August 30. Not only did straggling parties of demoralised soldiers break off into the forest, but at the height of the battle of Sedan—i.e., about 1 p.m.—a whole brigade of cavalry, under General M——, bolted into the Ardennes through the as yet untied-up neck of the sack, at Olly, behind Illy.

Having this fact from an officer who was present, and with whom I was riding lately over the northern portion of the battlefield, I cannot resist adding the following characteristic particulars related to me near the spot:—

“It was between noon and 1 p.m. when General M—— drew up the brigade, and, calling for three cheers for the Emperor, ordered us to prepare to charge the Prussians. The cheers were lustily given; but instead of charging the enemy, the brigade was suddenly wheeled to the right into the opening of the forest we have just passed. General M—— was subsequently decorated for this exploit.”

Had General Ducrot’s plan (attempted too late during the battle of Sedan), of retreating with the bulk of the French Army on Mezières through the skirts of the forest, been carried out on August 31, the disaster of Sedan would have been averted, as the back road to Mezières—i.e., that on the right bank of the Meuse—was