THE WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 245, 21 October 1870, Page 2

THE WAR.

EUGENIE—MOTHER AND EMPRESS

Metz, July 29th.—The Emperor and the Prince Imperial came yesterday. Au individunl in regimentals (more or less) says I should have seen the patting at the St. Cloud station. The hour of it was unknown to Paris ; so Paris was absent; "but there was a goodly and cheerful crowd present nevertheless. The scene was one of rare and touching solemnity. The Empress acted the Einpi*ess throughout, and none the less for showing the motherliness as well as the patriotism of her noble nature. Pressing her boy to her breast, sha said: "Adieu, Louis. Above all things do your duty." The Emperor replied, loud enough for all present toheav. "We shall all do that." And immediately the little station rang with a ringing French cheer. Uhe Empress had be. n a lady-iu-waiting to her boy. She gently pushed aside the royal servants who, contended for the honor of packing the youth's trunks, and insisted upon having the honor all to herself. So she stowed away the changes of juvenile uniform with her own pretty white hands, and packed off his Imperial Highness with a quivering lip and a wet eye, but with a firm soul, and then retired to her chapel, where she sank upon her knees to call upon Heaven to cover the head of son and father in battle, and to give victory to La Belle France. Indeed, you would love this woman even at tight. 1 am free to say that whioh ever side may be right or, which ever side may be wrong, there are none of us here in France, whether Gallic Celt or Saxon, but would fight for the Regent lady at St. Cloud. Her face is half the battle for her husband against his enemies in the rear, while her charities and graces soften the malice of the most uncharitable. She is shrewd as well as gentle, and can conciliate by the arts of magnanimity, as well as by the deeds of philanthropy. At a banquet she startled everybody by proposing for a toast the name of M. Thiers, and added that it was through his sagacious care for the Paris fortifications that 100,000 troops could be spared from the^capital. Then it was equally clever to'appear unexpectedly at Cherbom'g just as the fleet were about to set sail for the Baltic. She went incog, as well as unforetold. The effect of her visit was all the more inspiring on that account. Sailors and officers, marines and infantry, were ecstatic. Admiral Bouet was both gesticulatory and declamatory in his address. He could hardly contain himself for excitement. Nor could his audience. They caught the Admiral's fervor and drowned his voice with shouts of exultation. Her Majesty replied in an address from the Emperor. Then the splendid array of war craft passed before her shaking with the acclamations that were echoed by the crowds which covered the jetting quay and the overlooking heights. France must see her ruler in the saddle? though he have gout so badly as to groau inwardly at every prance of the fiery steed. And here we have suggested the sadness of the war. Whether you have any sympathy with the remarkable man or not, and whether you care or not for his dynasty and family, you will have to be very unsusceptible not to be touched in some sort with the spectacle of this old man and his young son riding and bowing side by side in an open barcuehe along the streets of Metz. It is impossible to restrain melancholy emotions. You cannot but think within yourself: Well, well, what a way to support a throne, to continue a dynasty, to acquire or preserve the loyalty of a people ! And what a people, that they should rally up or fall away from their Government according is it wins or loses in the chance of war!

The father is three-score and two, and looks some years older, crowning a life of incomparable vicissitudes with the last perilous and tremendous adventure. He must suffer in body, if not in mind, as he smile 3 his own peculiarly stern hard smile upon the packed multitude and crowded windows. The son is fourteen and looks even younger. His long soft locks are gone. He distributed them among the Eoyal household, it is said. It seems to me as if we miss with the locks the countenance of the mothe . Still there is her amiability, if not her energy of expression. There is a certain paleness and yet animation in tUe boy's fare. Like the page upon the dais in the Senate, to whom Senator Seward so pathetically alluded in his great Union speech, the boy exhibits intense, but phased emotion, while the eyes of the aged, and thoughtful are filled with tears. The veterans understand it all; the young Prince is incapable of solving the awful crisis. Little may lie think that he must " wade through slaughter" to his throne, if he would ever reach it. I declare to you I never saw so pathetic a pageantry. Prince Napoleon was one of the royal group. He looks older than when I saw him last in America, and as much as ever like the Jerome of Baltimore, and was the only oue of the threo Napoleons present who had the slightest resemblance to the first of tlieir illustrious line. Is there something for effect, too, in his presence ? He is to keep near his august cousins. The Prince was given a command, but the officers protested, and the Emperor withdrew the commission. His Royal Highness 'is not as popular as his wife, and some say he knows no more than she about military Lffairs. The first shot of the war was fired by, and first death was died by a Frenchman. In the morning twilight of the 21st, near Saar-Louis, a French vidette fired at and missed a German sentinel, who, in turn, fired at and killed the Frenchman. So the chassepot sent the first bullet and the needle-gun drew the first blood of the war. But belore this the tragedy had begun, as far as the French are concerned, with a curious chapter of catastrophes. Several soldiers were killed in a railway collision. Two subordinate officers were killed on picket duty, accidentally, by their own men. During a thunder-storm, three captains were severely wounded by " Heaven's artillery."-^Correspondence to the Cincinnati Gazette.