FRENCH PRISONERS.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2365, 31 October 1870, Page 2

FRENCH PRISONERS.

Dr Russell writes :—I have spoken to many, and found .them all grateful for the excellent treatment accorded them Only one, a Corsican, was dissatisfied. On my asking him what he had to complain of, he said he did not like being.cooped up like this, tha,t he was well enough to go out, and that, in short, he had not Come all the way to Berlin to be detained in a small room with windows looking into a'miscrable little gar. den. I consoled the imdatient &ght-seer by telling him that he would nO ddubt be per. mitted to visit /all -the ‘.most elegant cafd* before returning' IroiilW i Tffe, and indeed all the popr_fellows with him, s.em to suffer great em\ui... T l. jvish. sonm oil?" would send them ' r h Vag^n'rl®aß ; books. In all the 'French and Ger« mah r terms with ; each pth^ f Evidently learnt to respdp# eaffiodr’s gallantry. A Pnissian, whq‘ , at Spicheren, told like lions.” A FpenShinan;. >bo was standing by, but who, of tioursej had no idea what we had been speaking of, declared he had never imagined anybody could be so utterly indifferent to death as he found the Prussians were, “ And yet they look so innocent,” he added with a perplexed smile, pointing to a yq mg fair-haired fellow, whose vacant fea. tures certainly denoted no particular ferocity. The Prussians were unanimous in declaring the Ohassepot inferior to their own Dreyse. “It certainly has the wider range,” they said, “and sometimes kills a man at the most unexpected distances ; but, tlieu, you cannot take aim at above 900 paces, and what is the use of blazing away unless you have a fair chance of doing execution ? Besides, the immense range of the gun interfercs also with your taking aim at short distances; and the large quantity of powder in the cartridge makes it impossible for any- , one. to stand the recoil. You cannot properly handle a gun that boxes .your ears. We have frequently seen men pressing fheir guns agamst their breasts, and thighs when firing. If tlie chassepot cpuld.be pointed and discharged by a machine,, it would be a terrible weapon indeefL” ~ pie jnitrailleuse is voted an , exceedingly thing by the Prussian ,‘soldJiefV .“But then, you see,” — they >riU,'ad<ii qiiaUfyinglyy—“they always fire as straight asyou can go. The moment you turn a little" to the right or to the left* you are safe. It was always much easier for us to evade the balls than for the French to alter the aim of the mitrailleuses.” That the Prussians had any weapons of the kind, as is given out by the French, is universally denied. * .