FROM PARIS TO CALAIS UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 869, 10 May 1871, Page 2

FROM PARIS TO CALAIS UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

The "Besieged Resideufc" writes as follows from Calais on Feb. 10 : — At 4 o'clock on Wednesday I took my departure from Paris, leaving, without any poignant regret, its inhabitants wend r ing their way to the electoral "urns;" the many revolving in their minds how France and Paris were to manage to pay the little bill which their creditor outside is making up against them ; the few — the very few — still determined to die rather than yield, sitting in the cafes on the boulevard, which is to be, I presume, their " last ditch." Many correspondents, "special," -'our own," and "occasional," had arrived, and were girding up their loins for the benefit of the British public. Baron Rothschild had been kind enough to give me a pass which enabled me to take the Amiens train at the goods station within the walls of the city, instead of driving as those less fortunate were obliged to do, to Gonesse. My pas 3 had been signed by the proper authorities, and the proper authorities, for reasons best known to themselves — I presume because they had elections on the brain*-^ had dubbed me "Member of the House of Oour.nons, rendering himself to England to assist svt the conference of the Parliament." I have serious thoughts of tendering this document to the doorkeeper of the august sanctuary of the collective wisdom of my country, to discover whether he will recognise its validity. The train was drawn up before a shed in the midst of an ocean of mud. It con-

sisted of one passenger carriage, and of about half a mile of empty bullock vane* The former was already filled ; so, as a bullock, I embarked— l may add as an ill-used bullock ; for I had no straw to sit on. At St. Denis, a Prussian official inspected our passes, and at Gonesse about two hundred passengers struggled into the bullock vans. We reached Creil, a distance of thirty miles, at half-past eleven. I and my fellow-bullocks here made a rush at the buffet. But it was olosed. So we had to return to our vans, very hungry, very thirsty, very sulky, and very wet ; for it was raining hard. In this pleasant condition. we remained until nine o'clock on Thursday, occasionally slowly progressing for a few miles r -then making a halt for an hour or two. Why ? No one, not even the guard could tell. All he knew was, that the Prussians had hung out a signal ordering us, their slaves, to halt, and therefore halt we must. We did the forty miles between Creil and Breuteuil in ten houra. There, in a small inn, we found some eggs and bread, which we devoured like a flight of famished locusts. It was very cold,; and several of us sought shelter in a room at the station, where there was a fire. In the middle of this room there were two chairs, on one of them sat a Prussian soldier, on the other reposed his legs. He was a big red - haired fellow • and evidently in some corner of his Fatherland passed as a man of wit and humour. He was good enough to explain to us, with a pleasant smile, that in his eyes we were a very contemptible sort of people, and that if we did not consent to all the terms of peace which were proposed by " the Bis- . marck," he and his fellow warriors would burn our houses over our heads, and in many other ways make, things generally uncomfortable to us. "Ah! speak to me of Manteuffel," he occasionally said ; and as no one did speak to him of Manteuffel, he did so himself, and narrated to us many tales of the wondrous skill and intelligence of the eminent general; lAs he* called after the manner of his nation, a batterie zpaderk, and otherwise Germanised the French language, much of his interesting conversation was unintelligible. We had been at Breteuil about an hour when a Prussian train came puffing up. I managed to induce an official to allow me to get into the luggage van ; and thus, having started from Paris as a bullock, I reached Amiens at 12 o'clock as a carpetbag. The Amiens station— a very large one, covered in with glass — was crowded with Prussian soldiers ; and for one hour I stood there the witness of and sufferer from unmitigated ruffianism. The French were knocked about and pushed ■ about. Never were negro slaves treated with more, contempt and brutality than they weye by their conquerors. I could not sta_nd on any spot for two minutes without being gruffly ordered to stand on another by some officer. Twice two soldiers raised their muskets with a general notion of staving iv my. skull "pow passer le temps." Frenchmen, whatever may be their faults, are always extremely courteous in all their relations with each other and with strangers. In their wildest moments of excitement they are civil. They may poison you, or run a hook through you, but they will do it, as Izaak Walton did with the worm, l( as though they "loved" you. They were perfectly cowed with the rough bullying of their masters. At one o'clock I left this orgie of German terrorism in a train, and from then to Calais all was straight sailing. At Abbeville we passed from the Prussian, into the French lines. Calais we reached at 7 p.m., and right glad was I to eat a Calais supper and to sleep in a Calais bed. That the Prussians are doing their best in an underhand manner to prevent provisions in any quantity reaching Paris from England there can be no doiibt. Between Gonesse and Amiens, notwithstanding all the halts which we were forced to make, only three goods trains passed us. At Amiens five goods trains were waiting outside the station for permission to go forward. They had been there, a French official told me, for many hours, and there was nothing to hinder them from rushing forward except the 1 i fides plusqnum Puniea of the Prussians.'