A TOWN CAPTURED BY FIVE UHLANS.--MANTES TO VERSAILLES.--WE ARE ANNEXED
BY THE GERMANS.--GENERAL SHERIDAN AND NIGGER CHARLIE.--SOUTHERN EXILES.
Our horses being fatigued from the long journeys and heavy roads, we
made but slow progress. On coming to Mantes we put up for the night at
the Hôtel de France. This famous town is a wonder of cleanliness, with
streets as tidy as they are kept in Holland, and not a disagreeable nook
anywhere. Much consternation had been caused the day before, by five
Uhlans coming into the market-place with a train of waggons, and
carrying off all the corn and fodder they wanted for the troops about
Versailles. After they had satisfied these demands, the Uhlans proceeded
to set the station house on fire, as also to saw down the telegraph
posts and cut the wires. "What pluck these five must have had!" will be
the reader's exclamation. "Imagine such a force riding through a
populous town and carrying away with them half the produce of the
market, while the people looked on and never dreamt of molesting them!"
But the feat was not so daring, after all. Every one knew that, if the
inhabitants had interfered with these Uhlans, the place would have been
visited the day after, and reduced to ashes. Such was the punishment
inflicted upon whole villages of innocent and peaceable inhabitants,
sometimes in revenge of what had been done by a few individuals. I shall
give, by-and-by, a proclamation which was posted up on the walls of
Orleans, describing such an execution, and threatening to repeat the
like under similar circumstances.
Here it was that Pratt, who was anxious to get a vehicle in which most
of the medical staff could travel, produced an order which he had got
from the Prussian authorities at Sedan, requiring the Mairie of any
French town through which he passed, to provide him with whatever horses
and vehicles he might need for the use of his corps. Hayden and I were
sent to carry out this unpleasant task. Armed with our peremptory
document, we made a tour of discovery through Mantes, and, by throwing a
couple of francs to a lad, were informed of a large, private,
four-wheeled omnibus,--the very thing we wanted,--and a dashing,
stoutly-built pair of greys that might draw it. The yard gate stood
open, so in we walked, with the boldness of highwaymen, and asked to see
the owner. I knew by the servant's face that he suspected what was in
the wind. He retreated without uttering a syllable; but soon came back,
followed by his master--a middle-aged man of gentlemanly appearance. He
seemed very uneasy; but, when we showed him our requisition, and told
him that we had come to relieve him for a time of his carriage and pair
of horses, his face wore an aspect of the blankest dismay.
We, however, gave a sign to our own ostlers outside the gate, and
directed them to harness the horses and put to, which they did with as
great alacrity as if they had been Prussians, the owner looking on in
sullen silence. But what were his feelings, when, twenty minutes after,
he saw us driving his team through the gate and out of the town, I dare
not guess. This carriage and pair, I may here subjoin, we used until the
end of the war, when they were returned to the Mayor of Versailles, with
a request that they might be given back to the original owner at Mantes,
minus, however, one of the horses, which died from overwork and
hardship.
Thus it is, that, during times of war, the sacred rights of property are
violated, and systematic robbery is held to be justifiable by those who
can successfully practise it. In this instance the property was
ultimately restored to its rightful owner; but, in how many cases is
that never done? To be sure, the Government is supposed to indemnify any
individual who can produce the counterfoil of the requisition: yet it
would be interesting to hear from such injured persons, the story of how
much they asked and how little they got.
We pushed on rapidly towards St. Germain, for Dr. Pratt was in haste to
get there as soon as possible. Curious to relate, we had not thus far
fallen in with a single German outpost; neither did we, until our
entrance into the Forest of St. Germain, when we were challenged, and
had to give up our papers for inspection. A few miles outside that town
we passed through the village of Mézières, which had been burned to the
ground a few days previously, and was now a smouldering heap of ruins.
One burned village is like another, and I might have fancied myself in
Bazeilles. Whole streets in the suburbs of St. Germain, through which we
passed, had been plundered, and, in some cases, the soldiers had gone
from house to house by means of holes, which they had picked through the
partition walls. I rambled over a pile of such buildings, and certainly
the wanton destruction within them was astounding. The Germans, I must
say, when not watched, are rare good hands at pillage; but they were
kept down by such rigid discipline, and so severely punished for every
offence, how trivial soever, that they were, and are, I suppose
(although not with their goodwill), the best conducted soldiers on
active service in Europe. In the matter of discipline, nothing appears
to have been changed, at least in the way of relaxation, among the
Prussian rank and file, since the good old days of Frederick the Great
and his eccentric and brutal father.
Soon after leaving St. Germain we came upon the heights of Marly, just
below the aqueduct. From this position we commanded that historic view
which is too well known for me to think of describing it, even if I
could. Beneath us we observed the Palace of St. Cloud, destined in a few
short hours to be a ruin; and beyond, towering gloomily above it, the
fort of Mont Valérien. Nor was the garrison of the latter idle, for it
kept up a brisk cannonade in our direction, even as we were looking
towards it.
Presently we noticed a number of men descending beneath its guns.
Evidently, something unusual was about to take place. Of this fact we
were soon made certain by the shells dropping much nearer to us, some
bursting at the other side of the road beneath;--which, for a moment,
led us to imagine that the fort had mistaken us for an ammunition train.
The shells came very close; and the ladies who were with us felt, as was
not unreasonable, a good deal of alarm.
Just then two bodies of Bavarian cavalry and a regiment of infantry
passed us in hot haste, doubling down the hill, along a by-road, to join
other troops of the Line which were concealed in the woods beneath us,
and under cover of them were advancing. Directly to our left and below
us, the Prussian batteries opened fire from their positions, which
covered their cavalry and infantry on the right and left flank. For some
time the booming and rattling were kept up vigorously, reminding us of
the 31st August and 1st September on a small scale. But in about an hour
all was quiet again, and the French had retreated within their big fort.
This was only one of numberless little skirmishes, which were constantly
taking place between the besiegers and besieged, according as either
made excursions in the country around them in quest of provisions,
fodder, or fuel.
Early in the afternoon we entered Versailles, and reported ourselves
immediately to the Prussian General Commandant of the place. We
established our headquarters at the Hôtel des Réservoirs, in the street
of the same name. There Dr. Pratt and one or two others secured
apartments, which was a troublesome business, for every room in the
hotel seemed to be occupied by a Baron, a Prince, a Duke, or some high
officer of King William's household. I have heard that in the Hôtel des
Réservoirs alone there were four or five such magnates, among them
Prince Pless, and that Prince of Hohenzollern whose candidature for the
Crown of Spain was the pretext on which Louis Napoléon had declared war.
This latter I used to see constantly about the Conciergerie of the
hotel,--a gentlemanly, gay, and handsome youth, wearing the uniform of
the White Hussars, and certainly the last man in the world one would
picture to oneself as having originated this tremendous conflict.
Staying at the same hotel were two American Generals of great, but
unlike celebrity,--Sheridan, the famous cavalry hero, and Burnside, who
lost the battle of Fredericksburg. They made most friendly advances
towards the Americans of our Staff; but their attentions were received
by the latter with the utmost indifference, as they might have
anticipated; for our men, with the exception of Hayden, were
Southerners, and hated the ground these Yankees trod upon. Nigger
Charlie, whom their efforts had made a freeman, gnashed his teeth at
Sheridan when that General condescended to notice him. It was an honour
of which the darkie felt by no means proud. I may here state that no one
who has not lived for some time among a number of Southerners can
realise how bitter was their hatred in those years towards the North. So
great was it, indeed, that, when they could avoid it, they would not
even eat at the same table, or have any social intercourse with them. I
must add my suspicion that this was strictly true only in the case of
men like my _confrères_, who had been large slave-owners and landed
proprietors; and who, having been completely ruined by the war, had gone
into voluntary exile. On such as these the indulgent policy of the
United States Government, after the ruin of the Southern cause, had no
power to efface the memory of what they had lost. Wherever one travelled
in Europe twenty years ago, one still found Southern exiles, as deeply
imbued with hatred of the Yankee as if their subjugation had taken place
only the day before. But that feeling was not likely to outlive them.
And I am told that the gentlemen of Virginia and South Carolina have
acquiesced now in the abolition of slavery, against which they fought so
fiercely and to such little purpose, although we have just been
witnessing the renewal of their efforts to disfranchise the coloured
voters, and restore the local and State government to their own class.
But I am wandering from my subject. As I have already said, our chief's
private wish was, if possible, to get into Paris; and, with this object
in view, Dr. Pratt held a long consultation with Colonel Lloyd Lindsay,
R.A., president of the English Society, from whom we now awaited our
orders. He declared the project impossible, and placed our contingent at
the service of Prince Pless, Inspector-General of the German Ambulance
Corps, who told us that we were wanted very badly indeed at Orleans,
where there had been some days' severe fighting, with great loss on
both sides. The town was full of wounded, and the medical staff quite
insufficient to take charge of them.
Ostensibly, therefore, under the direction of Colonel Lloyd Lindsay and
the English Society, but, as a matter of fact, under German orders, we
had henceforth to carry on our mission. This change of control was
disagreeable to us; but there was no help for it. We had been at first
exclusively in the service of the French, but were always international;
and we could not, in honour or conscience, refuse to enlist in the
service of the Germans. As it had been rumoured about Versailles that we
wanted to get into Paris, there was felt a certain amount of suspicion
regarding our neutrality; and to have hesitated at this moment would
have been fatal to our usefulness in the forthcoming campaigns. We made
preparations to start as soon as might be. Colonel Lloyd Lindsay
objected to our present Ambulance uniforms, and thought them too French.
The Francs-Tireurs who had captured us, it will not be forgotten, had
taken them to be Prussian. At his suggestion, we were to wear the
undress uniform of the Royal Artillery while attached to the German
Field Hospital Service; and a supply was ordered immediately from
London. We received them, and wore them until we left Orleans. Such were
the circumstances under which our transfer from the French to the
Germans was effected.