On Monday, also, the French Army of the Loire advanced
along its whole line, but the attack in the east, directed against Prince Frederick Charles at Beaune la Rolande, with the view of penetrating to Fontainebleau, was repelled with heavy loss, the French, however, capturing one gun, and the Ger- mans admitting its loss. The French who attacked lost heavily in killed and wounded, 1,000 killed and some 2,000 prisoners, while the Germans say their killed and wounded together only reached 1,000. However, the Prussians retreated from the position they so well defended, and burnt the town. The date of Prince Frederick Charles's telegrams was carefully sup- pressed, and Montargis, on the east of his position, was abandoned to the French. The check received by the French was clearly nothing like as heavy as that received by the Germans at the battle of Orleans, and it was not followed up by a withdrawal of the French, who were apparently numerically too powerful to feel the loss. The last reports seem to imply that the Germans were again intending to attack from Pithiviers, and a vague telegram, received on the 2nd December at Munich, from Ver- sailles, under date 1st December, says General Von der Tann had fought " a series of successful engagements to the west of Orleans." This may be set off against an equally vague report from Tours of the same date, that the Prussians were " driven from their posi- tions before Patay" on the 1st December.
