along the northern face of the fortress, just within striking distance.

To put it concisely, some two hundred and fifty thousand unbeaten German
soldiers, with an artillery numbering over eight hundred guns, almost
surrounded the stronghold of Lorraine and the far weaker and partly
demoralised force which the French had gathered together beneath its
walls, only, as it turned out subsequently, to court defeat and
annihilation.

It was not until the 14th of August that the series of battles that were
to rage round Metz, began.

Early in the morning of that day--apparently for the first time struck
with an apprehension of having his retreat on Chalons by way of Verdun
interfered with and his communications with his base of supply cut off,
thus appreciating his critical position only when it was too late to
remedy it--the French Marshal commenced crossing the Moselle with his
vanguard. The entire body of troops, however, did not reach the river;
for, three corps, which had been encamped to the eastward of the
fortress, delayed their departure until the afternoon--a tardiness that
enabled Steinmetz to attack their rear and detain them on the spot,
until the flanking movement of Prince Frederick Charles' army beyond the
Moselle towards Pont-a-Mousson had been completed. A bloody and
indecisive action was the result, in which, if the Germans did not gain
a victory, they succeeded in accomplishing their object--that of
detaining the French troops before Metz, until their retreat on Verdun
should be impossible of achievement.

On the 16th occurred the battle of Vionville; and, two days later, that
of Gravelotte, the bloodiest contest that took place between the
opposing forces throughout the entire war--the first general engagement,
too, in which our friend Fritz really "smelt powder" and became an
active participant.

The rough skirmishing work which some of the divisions of the army corps
under Steinmetz had already had, during the intervening days since the
14th, somewhat prepared the soldiers of the Waterloo veteran for
butchery. They could plainly perceive from his tactics that their
general was one who would spare no sacrifice of human life in order to
gain his end and defeat the enemy. The corpses piled high on the field
of Vionville of the Cuirassiers and Ziethen Hussars, who had been
ordered to charge batteries of artillery in Balaclava fashion, afforded
proof enough of that; and the men said, with a laugh and