NOTES AND INCIDENTS.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 813, 6 March 1871, Page 3

NOTES AND INCIDENTS.

"^Here is a story of a French spy. About tbe end of August, it became known to General Steinmetz that Bazaine was employing a spy attired as a Franciscan monk, whose ostensible calling was, under the sign of the Red Cross, to minister to the dying. This man passed, for some time, unsuspected, and collected information for Bazaine, which he sent on to him through the French outposts. Steinmetz discovering this, issued private orders respecting this man's real character, and instructed a company of Uhlans under Captain Foist to look out for him. At length a detachment of four men found the gentlemen pursuing his holy work of visiting the houses where wounded men lay, in the neighborhood of Sawley, made him prisoner, and conducted him to Captain Puisfc. The pretender complained that he had been hindered in his sacred duties. The captain gave him a glass of wine, and spoke kindly, regretting that his men had not more discretion. They entered into friendly conversation on the war and the prospect of peace ; and being asked by the captain if he (the monk) had not heard that a few days since one of his order had been taken and executed as a spy, he became troubled, and urged his charitable duties for wishing to make a hasty departure. " Certainly," said the captain ; " but first have the goodness to hand me over the letters you are taking from Bazaine to Paris." Duly impressed with the polite attentions he would receive were he contumacious, he took off his sandals — which were greatly in need of repairs — and from beneath the double soles fished out three letters — one for Trochu, one for Palikao (the then Imperial Minister at War), and a plan for Marshal M'Mahon, for securing the relief of Metz. It matters not what the contents of these letters were j they were cunningly intercepted, and the pretended monk quickly relieved from his lively work of succouring the dead and dying by his judicious removal to Spandan. The villages, villas, and country houses which are a part of Paris outside the walls have not only given shelter to the Germans, and often stores of "wine and food, but have been invaluable places of defence. There is a girdle of barricades round the city, and every wall is loopholed, so that an assailing force once out of artillery cover has really to carry intrenched positions one after the other, each stronger as it opens heavier fire in proportion to the increased strength of the defenders. Artillery cannot move easily over the open at this time of the year, and columns must deploy. The Seine and the Marne, much as they conduce to the defence of. Paris, are great obstacles to the ready evolution of large sorties, because the bridges are destroyed, and pontoons can only be laid where the fire of the forts covers the pontooners. The system of signals in use in the German armies is quite sufficient for all purposes of warning. Posts are established near the outlying pickets, where a few poles, on which to run up flags by day and to burn beacons at night, are erected to notify a coming attack. The electric wires connect every command and run to head-quarters. Every house with a good view is turned into an " Observatorium," from which the French are watched through powerful glasses, and are obliged to undergo strict scrutiny, every day being divided into periods for observation and reports thereupon. lam distressed very much by appeals which are made to me often by valued friends to look after houses and places which belong to families in which they are interested, because I am poweriess, and can only direct attention. The mischief is done before any steps can be taken to prevent it.. The Crown Prince is anxious to afford protection to artists and literary men, but the exigencies of war are irresißtable. It is not at all possible to look beforehand and ascertain who ought to be protected in a district before it is overrun. I regret to Bay that I cannot recover lost dogs or pictures, or do much for villas on sites which may be useful for outposts or needed for batteries. Sometimes, as at St. Cloud, the ruin is wrought by the French themselves. The windows of Madame Prescator's splendid chateau, near Bongival, have been broken by the bursting of shells from Mont Valerien. On the other hand, the troops commit ravagejs in out-of-the-way places. The system of requisitions is in itself a nurse of license foreign to the nature of most Germans in peace time, but not at all restrained in war. I dined in a chateau belonging to aM. Lef evre the other day, to which I could net undertake to find my way now, seeing that it lies in some waste of ploughed fields, over which we had to drive and so return. Baron von Witzleben, ex-diplomatist, now cuirassier lieutenant attached to a munitions column of the Fifth Army Corps, was our host, and for some inscrutable reason he had selected this country, residence, far from the haunts of man and from his quarters at St. Cyr. His guests were Mr Odo Russell, Colonel von Esch, Lieutenant von Bissing, the artillery and cavalry officers attached to the column, and two Englishmen. I mention the circumstance only to compliment the officers on the order in the house, and on the state of preservation in which it was. It may be parly accounted for by the seclusion and distance of the place from any highway. There are cerUinlv less fortunate country seats, and what State this one may be in wheu M. Lefe'vre returns it is impossible to predict. There are villas at Bougival, at La Celle, near Malmaison, at Garches, Louvecienne3, Chaton, &c., which their owners would not know. Monte Christo and many other well-known villas or county seats are " occupied."