ONE YEAR AFTER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 201, 7 December 1871, Page 7

ONE YEAR AFTER.

The special correspondent of the " Daily Telegraph " writes as follows from Saarbruck on* August 1-7. Saarbruck, it will be*vemQinbered was the scene of the opening of the late war, the place where- the Prince Fmperial received his " baptism of fire " :—

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 survivoi-s, marching into Paris, took me in with them and left me theie on the Ist of March, 1871. I remember well that, having for many months i been the guest of gallant soldiers and accompliahed gentlemen, I had not been four-and-twenty hours in the " capital of human civilisation " before I was seized and hauled about by a throng of dirty ruffians in a military masquerade, who swore — probably because I was decently clad and cleanfaced — 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 coma" Only a year "and a hit- , tock " since, Woorth was fought down in those frontier lands where I first entered France under the banner of her enemies ; and the Yale of Honour, to which I have made pilgrimage this day, was swept and garnished' for the reception of its silent guests. What a year of horror has it been for those who " followed the war ! " How many friends, with forty prospective good years' life in their swarthy frames, have. I lost since the momentous opening week of August last ! These graves, amongst which I have been wandering for nearly a fortnight, are dismal reminders of many a mauvals quart a heure that followed the deathstroke dealt by some unseen hand to the gay companion with whom I had often strolled Unter den Linden or listened to the strains of Strauss on the terrace at Horn burg, or haply breakfasted at head-quarters on the very morning or his last day. Within a mile of this picturesque little town — ; formerly the " senHnelle perdue " of Germany, but now the " arriere garde " of broad and deep line of defences against the Fatherland's hereditary foe — is an oval enclosure fenced in -svith flagstaves bearing huge medallion?, gigantic iron crosses, and' enormous wreaths of laurel. This is the " Elu*enthal;" and, within, its precincts lie several hundreds of mouldering corpses that, on the morning of the Gth .A ugust, 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 grave 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 geni eration by an entail of valour. At the eastern edge of this valley begins the sorrowful record, with which I have lately grown so f miliar, of the cost at which German unity was achieved — the items of the account being, however, more distinctly set forth than in any of the great battle-fields 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 coo evidently written in perishable ink ; whilst here they are graven on .granite or chiselled in iron, in such sort that they may endure for ages. The houses that were destroyed by French shells are built up 'again ; the railway service has, resumed its old routine, oblivious of " Militarziige " and of the days when tickets were a myth. The Saarb nickers, for a short span as famous as the defenders 6f. Thermopylae — and, for months after the tide of war had swept over them, shaken out of the even tenor cf their lives by the throes of the earthquake that was "convulsing France — have fallen back into the dull, prosaic, plodding plan of existence that they followed before the war ; but the French breastworks on the Exereirplatz are still unlevelled, a few of the shell-craters have not -yet been filled up, and the field? 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 bloodstained'hill is a railed- in marble slab, covering the remains of eight officers belonging to the 78th Regiment, all " well-born " men, who were shot down within a few yards of the spot under which they are "interred. This tomb is approached by,s|;eps 4 out of, the mountain side,' and,' being thickly 'planted within its "grille," uesembles nothing so much as a diminutive London, square. Higher up, "on the very brow of that bad eminence, stands a showy "Denknial"with halfari hour's hard reading on its four faces * Hard ' by, another tomb still more gorgeous, with four Prussian eagles resting on its four corners, is in- process of erection ; and the rugged breast of the hog-backed bluff is studded with memorials of lessipretensioli, each "bearing dumb witness to the hideous slaughter that Kauieck's av^r-impetuousness and the stubborn persistence of his m^n caused in the ranks of the 7th Army Corps oil. that "'fateful', day. AVhat a

j hill it is to climb with, the' aid of a I stick, in a light shooting suit, and at your ease, taking time to breath at every thirty yards or so of the "upward progress ! vv'hen I had toiled, to rthe summit, and looked clown the abrupt descent, in < nmny places absolutely precipitous, I could scarcely believe | that men laden with packs and ' cart- ! ridge boxes,* hampered with rifles, and buttoned up in thick uniforms, could ever have attempted to carry such a l-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 the valley beneath but the heights beyond it — could I comprehend how an army that was fortunate enough to occupy such a splendid line of natural fortifications could ever have been driven from them, even by a force of tenfold strength. The heights, too, were fringed with earthworks, -upon which the French had mounted mitrailleuses as well a& field guns. Two of ! these mitrailleuses 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 French gunners were obliged to hang on to tb.G wheels of tlieir pet craoheurs, lest the weapons should topple over the brink and tumble down -bodily among the assailants. And yet Kamecke's men kept on climbing on ; until, after a desperate resistance, the legions pf France ■ fell back before the iron obstinacy of the Teuton, and gave \xn perhaps the most formidable natural stronghold that has ever been taken by a coup de main 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 neighbours ; 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 because " Bismark had not asked for money enough," or such a large slice of Lorraine had been given back to tluse 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 yeb it seems to be a growing place, developing in importance and in well-being with remarkable rapidity. Dozens of new houses are being built on both sides of the river — and built, too, of handsome proportions and expensive materials. The hotels, I need scarcely say, are all crowded ; not, as in Lorraine, with rich English and American battlefielders, but with pilgrims and holidaymakers from all 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. I should recommend such of my countrymen as may intend to visit Spichenberg, positively the most interesting locality of the Eastern war scene, to secure rooms by letter before they come hither, and to bring with them some cases of preserved or potted meats. Bread and butter can be depended on — they are both good and plentiful lie c —but nothing else. There is not even fruit to be got ; the meat ts detestable ; and either the hens suffer from some dread malady afflicting their embryomc offspring, or their proprietors look upon eggs as articles which — like game, wine, and cigars — improve by keeping. I will not set your toefch on edge by describing the beer ; nor cause an unprecedented run on chalk mixture by dilating- upon the specialities of the "curious" vintages retailed at tho hostelry I am unfortunate enough to inhabit. Suffice it to sa) , that accommodation for travellers at Saarbruck is as bad as it can be, and a little worse.