never before has an army been overwhelmed beneath such a downpour of lead and iron!  At one o’clock all is lost!  The regiments fly helter-skelter into Sedan!  But Sedan begins to burn, Dijonval burns, the ambulances burn, there is nothing now possible but to cut their way out.  Wimpfen, brave and resolute, proposes this to the Emperor.  The Third Zouaves, desperate, have set the example.  Cut off from the rest of the army, they have forced a passage and have reached Belgium.  A flight of lions!

Suddenly, above the disaster, above the huge pile of dead and dying, above all this unfortunate heroism, appears disgrace.  The white flag is hoisted.

BAZAINE AND METZ.

A letter of Count Von Moltke has recently been published, showing that the question of the conquest of France was under consideration by the Count and Bismarck as early as August of 1866.  It is demonstrated that these two powerful spirits were already preparing, aye, had already prepared, to trip the Emperor Louis Napoleon, throwing him and his Empire into a common ruin.  The letter also proves that the plan of the North-German Confederation, under the leadership of Prussia, with German unity and a German Empire just beyond, was already clearly in mind by the far-sighted leaders who surrounded King William in 1866.  Count Von Moltke shows that it was possible and practicable at that date, and within a period of two or three weeks, to throw upon the French border so tremendous an army that resistance would be impossible.  The antecedents of the Franco-Prussian War had been clearly thought out by the German masters at a time when Louis Napoleon was still tinkering with his quixotical Empire in Mexico.

When the war between France and Germany actually broke out, four years later.  Germany was prepared, and France was unprepared for the conflict.  Louis Napoleon did not know that Germany was prepared.  He actually thought that he could break into the German borders, fight his way victoriously to the capital, make his headquarters in Berlin, and dictate a peace in the manner of his uncle.  It was the most fallacious dream that a really astute man ever indulged in.  From the first day of actual contact with the Germans, the dream of the Emperor began to be dissipated.  Within five days (August 14-18, 1870,) three murderous battles were fought on French soil, the first at Courcelles, the next at Vionville, and the third at Gravelotte.  In all of these the French fought bravely, and in all were defeated disastrously, with tremendous losses.

By these great victories, the Germans were able to separate the two divisions of the French army.  The northern division, under command of the Emperor and MacMahon, began to recede toward Sedan, while the more powerful army, under Marshal Bazaine, numbering 173,000 men, was forced somewhat to the south, and pressed by the division of Prince Frederick Charles, until the French, in an evil day, entered the fortified town of Metz, and suffered themselves to be helplessly cooped up.  There was perhaps never another great army so safely and hopelessly disposed of!