General Faidherbe's defeat on the same day (Thursday) at St.
Quentin seems to have been a very serious one. One of his corps (the 22nd) fought really well, and inflicted great loss on the Germans, who own to the loss of 3,000 men and 91 officers in the battle. In fact, it appears that this corps really drove back the Prussian right for a considerable distance, until its line was so extended as to be weakened, and to give the Germans an opportunity of breaking through. Faidherbe says that he had not really more than 25,000 troops in all, and that he fought against nearly double the number, as the Germans were perpetually receiving reinforcements. This may be exaggeration, but it seems clear, from the Daily Yews, that Von Geben was really assisted from the Saxon troops before Paris, and Faidherbe asserts that he fought expressly in order to aid the Paris sortie of the same day, of which evidently he had full notice. He denies positively that he lost any guns in the field, and he has always been moderate and truthful in his bulletins ; but the Germans say they took two guns "under fire," and afterwards claimed a great number more, twenty-nine in all, the greater number of which were probably heavy guns taken in St. Quentin. Faidherbe as- serts that no prisoners were taken under arms, and that the 20,000 claimed by the Germans were made up of stragglers, sick, and footsore men. But there is no sort of doubt that his army, which retreated on Cambrai, and subsequently on Lille, was greatly demoralized by the defeat.
