The German telegrams are rapidly diminishing in accuracy, or are
written for the special benefit of Paris. Throughout the week -the authorities at Versailles have steadily represented that General Faidherbe was defeated at Noyelles on the 23rd, lost " some " guns and many prisoners (more than 1,000), and was rapidly retreating. It appears, however, from General Faidherbe's accounts, confirmed to the minutest particular by the English correspondent with the German Army of the North, that General Groeben attacked the French, who were magnificently placed on a range of hills, and
carried village after village at their foot, with a loss of 1,200 killed and wounded, of which the King makes no mention. The French, however, fought "uncommonly well," regained Querrieux, the most important village, by hand-to-hand fighting, and only lost it in the darkness, while they never lost their main position on the hills at all. This was evacuated voluntarily twenty-four hours later by General Faidherbe, who marched back to his old position in front of Lille, drawing General Manteuffel after him quite out of Normandy. The really bad point for the French is mentioned by General Faidherbe himself, that both before and after the battle certain men "disbanded themselves ;" in other words, we sup- pose, fled away. The good point for the French is, that the Army of the North, after freeing Normandy and Picardy, and causing a loss of at least 2,000 to the Germans, ie where it was when its march began, once more protected by the fortifications of Lille. Its own losses comparatively matter nothing.
