One of the most courageous episodes of the war has
been both the attack on Beaune-la-Rolande last Monday week by the French, and its equally brilliant defence by a very inferior force of Germans under General Voights Rhetz. The Times' special correspondent at Versailles, Mr. Russell, describes the battle in his letter published last Wednesday from exclusively German sources, and does full justice to the heroism both of the attacking and the attacked troops. The Germans had a very strong barricaded position, and fired a perfect hail of bullets from behind the barricades, while the town, riddled and set on fire by the French artillery, was burning in their rear. The French fell fast, he says, under the hail of bullets, " as they neared the bar- ricade ; but the column still went on till it reached the barricade, when, greeted with glistening bayonets, it melted away beneath the rolling fire. Long lines of dead and dying marked its path, thickest where the crossing of the brook caused a momentary delay and gave a steadier aim to the Prussians." The German resistance was as heroic as the French attack. General Wedel, who was the immediate commander at Beaune, sent to General Voights Rhetz to say he would hold Beaune while he had a man left, and he was almost held to his promise ; reinforcements from Prince Frederick Charles from Pithiviers reached him only just in time to check the French and compel their retirement. The -Germans had shelter and a good position, the French the advantage in numbers ; the gallantry was quite equal.
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