Metz.  Accordingly, about nine o’clock he produced the secret order empowering him to succeed MacMahon should the latter be incapacitated.  Ducrot at once yielded to the ministerial ukase; the Emperor sought to intervene in favour of Ducrot, only to be waved aside by the confident de Wimpffen; and thus the long conflict between MacMahon and the Palikao Ministry ended in victory for the latter—­and disaster for France[46].

[Footnote 46:  See Lebrun’s Guerre de 1870:  Bazeilles-Sedan, for these disputes.] In hazarding this last statement we do not mean to imply that a retreat on Mezieres would then have saved the whole army.  It might, however, have enabled part of it to break through either to Mezieres or the Belgian boundary; and it is possible that Ducrot had the latter objective in view when he ordered the concentration at Illy.  In any case, that move was now countermanded in favour of a desperate attack on the eastern assailants.  It need hardly be said that the result of these vacillations was deplorable, unsteadying the defenders, and giving the assailants time to bring up troops and cannon, and thereby strengthen their grip on every important point.  Especially valuable was the approach of the 2nd Bavarian corps; setting out from Raucourt at 4 A.M. it reached the hills south of Sedan about 9, and its artillery posted near Frenois began a terrible fire on the town and the French troops near it.

About the same time the Second Division of the Saxons reinforced their hard-pressed comrades to the north of la Moncelle, where, on de Wimpffen’s orders, the French were making a strong forward move.  The opportune arrival of these new German troops saved their artillery, which had been doing splendid service.  The French were driven back across the Givonne with heavy loss, and the massed battery of 100 guns crushed all further efforts at advance on this side.  Meanwhile at Bazeilles the marines had worthily upheld the honour of the French arms.  Despite the terrible artillery fire now concentrated on the village, they pushed the German footmen back, but never quite drove them out.  These, when reinforced, renewed the fight with equal obstinacy; the inhabitants themselves joined in with whatever weapons fury suggested to them and as that merciless strife swayed to and fro amidst the roar of artillery, the crash of walls, and the hiss of flame, war was seen in all its naked ferocity.

Yet here again, as at all points, the defence was gradually overborne by the superiority of the German artillery.  About eleven o’clock the French, despite their superhuman efforts, were outflanked by the Bavarians and Saxons on the north of the village.  Even then, when the regulars fell back, some of the inhabitants went on with their mad resistance; a great part of the village was now in flames, but whether they were kindled by the Germans, or by the retiring French so as to delay the victors, has never been cleared up.  In either case, several of the inhabitants perished in the flames; and it is admitted that the Bavarians burnt some of the villagers for firing on them from the windows[47].