All the French fortresses still hold out, but it seems
that the defence of Strasburg—pressed by the heaviest artillery, and with two of its outworks captured, and, as it is asserted, a practicable breach made,—draws near to a close, though the close has been long predicted. General Uhrich is reported to have been himself wounded, but still the gallant officer holds out, and no attempt to storm has yet been made. A " Lombard " telegram of yesterday states that the theatre in Strasburg has been set on fire by a shell, which caused a terrible conflagration, and the death, by burning, of 200 people, mostly women,—a fearful climax to the miseries of the siege. As to Metz, the accounts are absurdly contradictory. Some German accounts assert that horseflesh in Metz was selling at francs a pound, and others (also German) assert that Metz is fully provisioned, and can hold out for three months. A (German) correspondent of the Cologne Gazette said
that on the 13th September he could see through a field-glass herds of cattle feeding quietly within the lines ; and that a couple of hundred worn-out horses were turned out of the encampment instead of being used as food. And this state of the ease seems sup- ported by the better evidence. For, a chaplain in the Prussian Army, Prince Edmund Radziwill, who was imprisoned for a week in Metz, and liberated on the 24th August, with seven officers and 734 men, in exchange for the same number of prisoners on the German side, asserts that he and his companions were well fed, and saw no deficiency of any kind but sugar. Metz seems also to be well provided with ammunition, as the firing is often kept up through both day and night.
Previous page
