THE MOUNTAIN OF CORPSES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 450, 2 December 1870, Page 3

THE MOUNTAIN OF CORPSES.

The'" Gauloi?"",'of tho" 17th September, publishes the following fearful and ghutly i nci lent of theVar^: — Until"novv we have ha 1 m deta ilsof the affair at Jaumont. Wo extract tlie following terrible account from a letter from a young soldier to his mother : The catastrophe at Jaumont will remain in histors' as one of the most terrible events in the war ; and however terrible the representation may be it can never approach the horror experienced hy'those who were witnesses of the scene. Can you believe that we, after the blow hail been Struck, remained dumb, panting with affright, and even weeping in presence of that 'horrible mountain of dead. Do you know what our Ot>rps;gays was the'first cause of this un heard of drama ? 11t is said that it was'the vengeance of four peasants'who ,jhad their houses burned and ruined by the Prussians In or'er to revenge themselves, these men, knowing the country well, offered themselves as guides] to the] enemy, and con-ductedUhem!'to'a;-position whichtthe'Prnssians considered impregnable, without dreaming of the frightful snare into winch they had been entrapped. You may judge yourself. The quarries of Jaumont, which had been at first hewn out to the open sky, from an immense and very deep excavation, the perpendicular wall of which were seven or eight stories in height. It was on the summit of one of these platforms that the Prussians had established themselves, feeling secure against being surprised from the rear. Of the four peasants who lead them, one escaped to tell the terrible way by which the whole corps could be annihilated, and this was infallible. At first worked in the open, the quarry wa- afterwards mined in one of its sides by long Bu'it< rrane.ui galle; ies, storey rising after ts'urey, which wcro se; irated fiom each ot'.ier a-irt tiscamet by pillars. Only one si le, I rjpuat, had been <hus hollowed out, an lit -vas on th-i ground supported by tlies ■ p.Ua s that o>ir pe.nants had placed tha Pru munv d iriig the night. The darkness it lirst; and (ha >i-pendieular descent afterward*, preveu ed thorn from noticing those c.dleriea which ud mimed the wall, on the top of wnich they had entrenched tUeinsclvr-8. At break of day Bazaine attacked them in frnn-, and they fought full of confidence that they could not be surprised from behind. Bat at the crisis of the combat, Canrobert, -who had turned the quarries, placed bis cannons at the other si'ie of the gulf, and made his shot fly against the pillars which supported the gallery, in an hour afterwards the sudden an i frightful crash came, the enormous bl.ck fell under their feet and the Prussians were precipitated into the gulf. Ah ! if I were to live a hundred years I should have always in my ear that horrible cry uttered by that whole mass of men feeling the earth lireaking off from beneath them. Imagine to yourself twenty thousand cries, united in a single shriek of unutte.able and awful despair, uttered by these men, all knowing that they must instantly perish ! It was as if one solitary human voice of tremendous power, vibrating with indescribable agony, had made a last and terrible appeal for help, had bid a last frightful adieu to life. It was of short duration ; the human avalanche quickly bagan, and men, horses, cannons, were prccipitate'l pell-mell into the precipice in one gigantic mass, bearing down everything by its monstrous weight. At the same moment Bazaine drove the Prussion corps before him with such irresistible fury that half a French regiment, which could not restrain its entkut-iasni, was also piecipitated into the abyss. The drama lasted ten minutes. At this moment the national character was at once revealed. Instead of the yells of ferocious joy with which had we been in their place, the Prussians would have saluted such a success, we Frenchmen remained dumb, terrified by that last and grievous cry which still rings in' our ears, ann tears gushed from many eyes whi'h remained fixed on that enormous mass, still moved by the spasms of their giuantic agony. This heap of bodies, in which arms, bod'es, men's heads, horses' legs, cannons, broken gun-carriages, heaved up and down, presented to us a living mountain, the height of which, though it sank gradually by its own weight, filled up even at least two-thirds of the gulf which had received it. The noise of the combat had suddenly ceased. All of us, with sore hearts, kept silent listening to the twenty thousand cries which issued from that mass of human beings, and which became feebler as the slow crash and ruin became more and more complete. Our victory frightened ourselves.

The Paris opera-house physician uses the galvanic ha'tery to cure singers of hoarseness. They are so shocked that they don’t know whether they are hoarse or not, and immediately sing and electrify the house. A.young lady having “ set hnr nap” for a rather large specimen of the opposite sex and having failed to win him, was telling lieh sorrows to a couple of her confidants, when one of them confronted her with these words: “Never mind, Molly ; there are are as good fish in the sea as ever was caught.” “Molly knows that,” replied her little brother; “ but she wants a whale.”