ENTRY OF THE GERMANS INTO PARIS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 112, 13 May 1871, Page 4

ENTRY OF THE GERMANS INTO PARIS.

--..^ o At the; w : ord the '<Jatfdlry\ trumpets ring oat, and the officers shout ." March ! " On they *gd^h^,.!thj6i||^erted Avenue, foll<*>#&_ |T by the BdlH Regiment playing lustily the Paris Match I .^.Ofi, through the appalling solitude, of the Avenue Beaugar, acr psi^ the -Placa , d'Eylavjk -where stood a solitary '__o.Bema-i,' and iip .the Avenue de Malakoff to the Place dii' _toi de Rome. There., werq. tho^ ampng the on-lookers whbjtyad^ se*aii the French soldiers march with their English allies into the grirjf' fortress from which this avenue takes its name, j: Wtifc* 6 are the men .who storm«|d. tbe Mamelon, the dauntless and crafty campaigners of the Crimea ? Alas ! their courage sapped, their craft,, gone,. , thek and tQen f yM!b [should have ; bfeen such p ttey,- are, languishing in, the Germ|n prisons, and; the, conquerors of the new era of, warfare are-marching „m triumph over them up the avenue named after one , of their deeds of prowess. The head of the long snaky, column marches steadily on through curious groups— for the Avenue de Malakoff is densely populated, and its inhabitants cannot resist the humiliating , fascijQation-r— till at length, it reaches the Place du Roi . de : Rome, a bastion-like promontory of fable-laud overlooking the whole of 'Paris eastward, and southard. Lo ! before the host lies Paris as in a panorama. 'Over against rose the glided dome of the Invalides. Are the ashes of the First Napoleon quiescent in thb ' sarcophagus tbrday? Behind, the grand pile of the Arch of Triumph rears its head. In the distance rise the towers .bf St. Snlpice and PantheoD, and Notre "Dame. , At ,,.; our feet -winds the, , Seine, v * .striped out: with its .. beautiful quays, esplanade and , bridges j beyond the Ghampis. de Mare, clad with the white tents of the French. . On the "Field ,p£. the G-od of War " a , dense mass has, collected of French soldiers, no longer warriors. And what effect has this rich and varied panorama 6n the German soldiery ?. Business first of <jpursev, They tramp on with the stolidity of perfect discipline, form companies on the grassy slope leading down to the river, and. pile arms with mathematical pr'ecisioh. And , then they are free to stare and wonder. It ,is blank wonderment at first.; then the gradual dawn of profound silent admiration. The wistfulness of that conoebtrated fixture. of the multitudinous eyes *!' And then a man with a deep sigh, such as a man heaves after a long, pull at aw flask; gasps out the single word " Wuffderschon .' " He breaks , the ice. There is a' chorus of " wunderschon, " and tho Tou tons, with that love of pure beauty, which is one of their beet tributes, fall to quiet, thoughtful comment; on the glories of Paris. They lay down on^ the grass, and drink their fill pf the, sight ; they roll it like a sweet morsel under, itheir tongue ; they lave themselves, eo to speak, in the . beauties of the beautiful city. : The ; Pont du Champs de Mars down below has its German end still held iby a Zouave guard, and they have run a rude barricade across it, consisting of, a jnule cart and a few baskets. A company is marched down ; it halts, and the hauptmann rides out and parleys with the Zouave officer amid the intense interest, not unmingled with hooting, of the densely lined ; quay on the opposite side. , The i.fezzes cross the bridge, and the spiked hemlets occupy the hither end j, straightway /the two sentries of th© " double post" are stalking to and fro as if- -they had held the ground from beyond: the i memory of raan.t Up on the brow* of the slope his reverence, the division chaplain, on a- white /horse, is gazing open-mouthed on the scene; but neve*r inindhito/ Jet usi push now to the Arch of Triumph. As we walk along the Rue du Roi de Rome, we see the .chalk marks of 1 the qttartier meisier already, on the doors, and the, German flag is. .floating from the conciergerie window;: of the Commandant. The* neighborhood of the Arch ; Qf Ttfufifrph :_t desdf&ly crowded with the infantry of the 6th Army Corps halted, with ppyfjly old r ,von TumpJing sitting, in his saddle at their head. Thickly in terspefspd/with them were, _? arisian^, ;chiefly of the lower orderv gamins, were in wild pVdfdsion — young rascals of wonderful f pantomip^ic ability, with a concerted shtUl/i- whistli. that drowned or discor.dedii^henmusic of the bands. Already the versatile rogues had learned tp mimic* the harsh words of command 'and 7 hhe} somewhat clumsy . gestures. oL. the men,- Impudent -varlets they, were, and they h^d, apparently. already gauged ; ithe :. good : temper . of the Hussars wiio kept the grounds for they mocked without ceasing,, ittKajppsiri.rit : certainly 'of impunity. „ Ruit cleprjhe w^fye gaihins; At Wlumbdtibe canter come some gisantio ';^utWßHerj^ot, ■ ( th.e ? G"aai;ayCorps,.^pdht)he_i ''tiie genera^-^aia^L-iSfti igopdi friends -witlt the broad Sclave-features, ye stout hinder of^von^ T^s^Jiß^^yos.; v *9eed not glancq id keenly up at the arch there. For the

, __r. l Emperor comes not, neither comes his, son, yet 1 the' blood royal of Prussia is not unrepresented. For there is , Prince Albrecht, of the cavalry, and , burly Admiral Adalbert, looking uncommonly* like the late Sir Charles Napier, and as bad a rider as are most sailors,, .And here is a face familiar to aud honored by me, by reason of -sincere respect and mauy kindnesses — the face of the Heir Apparent to the throne of Saxony, at once a Prince', and a soldier. And he of Saxe Coburg Gotha, and Leopold "of Bavaria, and Leopold of Hohenzollern, and, not to waste ' the readers' time and my own ink, the whole ruck of the " Zioeite StajM" the blueblooded band of " "wee Gerr_&m birdies, " not a few of t^em very big in Tidily bulk and in their own conceit. Otuer pens than mine will a\ouhjfcli3ss be fainMo give the catalouge in exieriso ;in mercy I refrain. Following the general staff come ihe Bavarian troops, marching still to the breakdown in half-company columns. The men of the 6th Army Corps follow them towards the Place de la Concorde, and we fall into the tide on the broad side walk. Th soldiers already billets-are staring out of window or loitering by-'the doorways. I ask a Hessian dragoon what he thinks of Paris. " Oh, it's very fine, : ' he replies.much in the tone of the Scotch, bailie who thought Edinburgh could not hold a candle to Peebles. "But" — there was a but in every fibre of the tone — " but he had got "nothing to eat yet, and there was no straw, for his own or his horse's bed. " « ,Not surely a fierce requisitionist this man, whose summum bonum in the bed line lies in a lock of straw ;wood was another want which the occupants of the little theatres on the Champs Elysees were fast repairing by dragging out and chopping up the chairs and benches, with which they lit their alfresco fires in the gardenplats. The 22nd Division men on tbe Place de Roi de Rome had be^en able to stack arms and lie down. Not\o their comrades on the Place de la-^Coucorde. There was too many disturbent elements simmering in the vicinity. It is true that single officers walked unmolested through the crowds -on the sidewalks, that the Princes rode leisurely to and fro, the cynosures, of all eyes. But there was an ugly yeasty throng not so much in the Champ Elysees as in the Place de la Concorde. Here the Bavarians stood to their positions looking up at the statues of the chief French cities, the faces of which were each veiled in crape. Through the film of black, German Strasshurg looked down dimly upon the German Soldiers, her pedestal still bedight with the wreaths and garlands which grateful Paris had affixed thereunto. Down the vista of each entering street, was apparent first a thin and vacillating line\ of redbreeched troops of the line,Vnea\er now to the Germans than ever they had dared to come before. Behind this line again a densely-packed crowd of angry, truculent faces, with? a dash of the wolf about the eyes of them, bloodthirsty, yet cowards the whole pack. Looking at them is one man by the statue of Rouen here, whom not to name would be to leave my description very incomplete — a tali strong man, in a Cuirassier uniform without the cuirass, but with the hemlet. Paris looks at the keen eyes, the brusque .moustache, and the square lower jaw, as ; if it ought to know them, yet is not quite sure about it. Take your hemlet off, , Otto : . von Bismarck-Sehonhausen, and let the gazers have the wprth of their money in. a long 'stare. ■' ' ; "'" ''_ "..' ; .■'''- ' ' i (To be coniinuetf.y