ermans now threatening the line of the Givonne, cut de Wimpffen to
the quick. He knew that the Crown Prince held a force to the south-west
of Sedan, ready to fall on the flank of any force that sought to break
away to Mezieres; and a temporary success of his own 5th corps against
the Saxons in la Moncelle strengthened his prepossession in favour of a
combined move eastwards towards Carignan and Metz. Accordingly, about
nine o'clock he produced the secret order empowering him to succeed
MacMahon should the latter be incapacitated. Ducrot at once yielded to
the ministerial ukase; the Emperor sought to intervene in favour of
Ducrot, only to be waved aside by the confident de Wimpffen; and thus
the long conflict between MacMahon and the Palikao Ministry ended in
victory for the latter--and disaster for France[46].

[Footnote 46: See Lebrun's _Guerre de 1870: Bazeilles-Sedan_, for these
disputes.] In hazarding this last statement we do not mean to imply
that a retreat on Mezieres would then have saved the whole army. It
might, however, have enabled part of it to break through either to
Mezieres or the Belgian boundary; and it is possible that Ducrot had the
latter objective in view when he ordered the concentration at Illy. In
any case, that move was now countermanded in favour of a desperate
attack on the eastern assailants. It need hardly be said that the result
of these vacillations was deplorable, unsteadying the defenders, and
giving the assailants time to bring up troops and cannon, and thereby
strengthen their grip on every important point. Especially valuable was
the approach of the 2nd Bavarian corps; setting out from Raucourt at 4
A.M. it reached the hills south of Sedan about 9, and its artillery
posted near Frenois began a terrible fire on the town and the French
troops near it.

About the same time the Second Division of the Saxons reinforced their
hard-pressed comrades to the north of la Moncelle, where, on de
Wimpffen's orders, the French were making a strong forward move. The
opportune arrival of these new German troops saved their artillery,
which had been doing splendid service. The French were driven back
across the Givonne with heavy loss, and the massed battery of 100 guns
crushed all further efforts at advance on this side. Meanwhile at
Bazeilles the marines had worthily upheld the honour of the French arms.
Despite the terrible artillery fire now concentrated on the village,
they pushed the German foo