ONE YEAR AFTER.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1045, 1 December 1871, Page 2

ONE YEAR AFTER.

The special correspondent of the JOaUg v Telegraph writes as follows fromSa^rb^c^ which, it will be remgmbeyed, wag the scene of the opening of the late war, the . place where the Prince Imperial received' his <' baptism of fire" :— : , : : ' „ V ; ; Again in Germany, post tantos ! A year ago I rode over its frontier' into France with an already Victorious army, which I never left for a day until thirty thousand of its luckiest survivors, marching into Paris, took me in with them and leftmg there on the Ist of Marchj iSft.. rf:?6*V r ' j, member welj thatj having , foiixoiity f months been theguest of gallant soldiers and accomplished gentlemen, I had, not; , been four-anot-twenty hours in the "capital of human civilisation" before I was seized and hauled about by a throng of dirty,] ruffians in military masquerade, who swore — probably because 1 was decently clad and clean-faced— that I was an enemy of France, a Prussian spy, and I know not what besides; and who vociferated in my ears until I was nearly stunned the agreeable assurance that "my time had ci icorrie." Only a year " and a bittock"| since, Woerth.was fought down in those*" frontier lands Where I first entered France under the banner of her eneinjes j and, the Vale of Hjwwr,. to which I have made pilgrimage , t this, day, was swept _ and. ; garnished for the reception of its silent guests. What a year of hqrror ,has it been for those who, \"fdlldwed the war ;" How many friends) . with forty prospective good . years' life in , thejr. stalwart frames, have I lost since the, mo- , v mentous opening week of August last !" These graves; amongst which' I nave been wandgrinjj for nearly a fortnight, a^e, dig* mal reminders of many a mauvais quarfcq hewe ikhat followed the death-stroke dealt by some unseen hand to the gay companion with whom I had' often strolled Unter den Linden or listened to *he strains of Strauss on the terrace at Hombourg, or/ haply breakfasted at headquarters on the f very morning of his last day. AVithina mile of this picturesque little l t6wti— : formerly the " sentuielle perdue" *>f Get** * many, but now th* "*rrierfr garde" pf a broad and deep^ line of defwoe« agaifitaii the Fatherland's hereditary foe— is an ovat enclosure longed dp.. MUfk de^taTf^j ■>. bearing huge medj|iUions, gigautiQ vim

crosses, and enormous wreaths of laurel. This is the"Ehrenthal ;" and, within its preoinots lie several hundred of mouldering corpses that, on the morning of the 6th August, 1870, were intrepid warriors, rushing onwards to meet a glorious death. The heroic General von Frangois and his son are amongst their comrades there, within a few feet of one another ; and the story of the graves records many a name besides, well known in the military annals of Prussia, where deeds of daring do run in- families, and are handed down from generation to generation by an entail of valor. At the eastern edge of this valley begins the sorrowful record with which I have lately grown so familiar, of the post at which German unity was achieved — the items of the account being, however, more distinctly set forth than in any of the great battlefielda that I haVe visited since the conclusion of the campaign. Round Sedan the significant figures are well-nigh erased ; in the vicinity of Metz they are clear, but too evidently written in perishable ink ; whilst here they are graven on granite or chiselled in iron, in such sort that they may endure fcr ages. The houses that were destroyed by French sheik are built up again ; the railway.service has resumed its old routine, oblivious of " Militarzuge" and the days ■when tickets were a myth. The Saarbrnckers, for a short span as famous as the defenders of Thermopylae and, for months after the tide of war had swept over them, shaken out of the even tenor of their lives by the throes of the earthquake that was convulsing France — have fallen baok into the dull, prosaic, plodding plan of existence that they followed before the war ; but the French breastworks on the Exercirplatz are still unlevelled, . a few of the shell-craters have not yet been filled up, and the fields at the foot of the terrible Spicherenberg are thickly set with tombs— not mere cross-crested mounds of 'weed-clad earth, but formal, solid, and in many cases costly monuments. Half-way up that blood-stained hill is arailed-in marble slab, covering the remains of eight officers belonging to the 74th Regiment, all "well-born" men, who were shot down within a few yards of the spot under which they are interred. The tomb is approached by steps out of the mountain side, and, being. thickly planted within its "grille,"' resembles nothing so much as a diminutive London square. Higher up, on the, very brow of that bad eminence, sta.nda a Bhowy "Denkmal" with half an hour's hard reading on, its four feoes. Hard by, another tomb still more gorgeous, with four Prussian eagles resting on its several corners, is in process of erection ; and the rugged breast of the hog-backed bluff is studded with memorials of less pretension, each bearing dumb witness to the hideous slaughter that Kamecke's over-impetuous-nesd and the stubborn persistence of his men caused in the ranks pjf the tth Army Corps on- thftt fateful day. ; What a hil} it is to climb with the ajid'.of a. $ck, in , a; light shooting suit, and at your ease, taking time to breathe at ejrery ; thirty ; yards or so of the upward progress ! When J had toiled to the summit, and looked down the abrupt decent, in many places absolutely precipitous, I could scarcely believe that men laden with packs and cartridge boxes, hampered with rifles! and buttoned up in thic£ uniforms, could ever have attempted to carry such a position by storm". Still less— glancing along the; wood-crowned hills that swept backward on either flank of the central bluff, and commanded not only thfe valley beneath but the heights beyond it— could I comprehend how any army that was fortunate enough to occupy such a splendid line of natural fortifica-j. tibnscduld ever have been driven from them, even by a force of tenfold strength. Theheights; too, were fringed with earthworks, upon which the French had mounted mitrailleuses as well as field guns. Two of these initraUleu.aea they depressed over the edge of the cliff, so that their fire swept with a tempest of bullets the face of the slope, up which the Prussians were struggling; whilst the Frenchgunners were obliged to hang on to the wheels of their pet crocfteurs, lest the weapons should topple over the brink and tumble down bodily amongst the assailants. And yet Kamecke's men kept climbing on; until, after a desperate reBistance, the legions of France fell back before the iron obstinacy of the Teuton, and gave up perhaps the moat formidable natural stronghold that has ever been tak«n try a ccwp de wain within human memory. ■. ■ '

The natives of Saarbruck are proud of the victory won close to their walls ; and well they may be. They are not fond of the French'~there is seldom much affection wasted between near neighbors ; and they rejoice more undisguisedly in the calamities that have befallen France, than any other tribe of Germans with which I am acquainted, I have heard more than one of the town elders grumble loudly because "Bismark had not asked for money enough," or such a large slice of Lorraine had been given back to those blackguard Republicans." Saarbruck does not by any means profess adhesion to an advanced school of politics. It is Tory, loyal, and martial even to. a fault ; and yet it seems to be a growing' place, developing in importance and in wellbeing with remarkable rapidity. Dozens of new houses are being built on both sides Of the 1 river^and built, too, of handsome proportions and expensive materials. The hotels, 1 need scarcely say, are all crowded, not as in Lorraine, with rich English and American battle-fielders, but with pilgrims and holiday?maken from aU parts of Germany, who are characteristically careless of comfort and perfectly indifferent to the quality of the food they eat or the -wine they drink. 1 1 should recommend such of my countrymen" as may intend to vvjsit the Spichenberg, positively the most interesting locaUty of the Eastern war scene, to secure rooms by letter before they come hither, and) to (bring with thtim some cases of preserved or potted meats. Bread and butter can be depended on-r-they are bp,th good and plentiful here— but nothing else. There is not even fruit to be got ; the meat is detestable ; and either the hens suffer from some dread malady afflicting their embryonic offspring,i -jgat i their proprietors lbbfe upon eggs as articles which — like game, wine, and cigars — improve by keeping. I will not set your teeth on edge ' by describing the beer; nor cause an unprecedented run on chalk mixture by dilating upon the specialities of th'd '" curious" vintages retayedatjthetjipstehy 1 am unfortunate enooglrto inhabit. S,uffice it to say, that accQßarfodfttiiOiic for »t Saavbrbrftui> ted'to-it/cin^ Be, and a litHe