66 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



live in ; but chance, or its castellated character, had cost it 

 dear. The lead was wrenched off the chapel roof; the 

 beautiful stained-glass window was broken ; the altar was 

 a shapeless wreck. Even an antique folio missal had not 

 escaped the rancour of an incensed soldiery, and I picked 

 up and brought home as relics some of its leaves which were 

 strewn on the floor. One shell, after boring through two 

 roofs and a granary, had buried itself deep in the founda- 

 tion. Another had smashed right into a costly mirror, 

 which had probably been too large to take away. Every- 

 thing had gone to rack and ruin. Plaster had crumbled, 

 lead was curled, slates displaced, wood shivered into pieces. 

 But perhaps the most singular sight was the trees on the 

 road pitted with bullet marks, as if the " franc-tireurs " had 

 sheltered behind them, and here and there a large bough 

 riven by some fragment of shell. A little to the right were 

 two mounds surmounted by a simple cross, but thousands 

 of brave men were placed beneath the sod with no sign to 

 mark their graves. We heard some revolting stories of 

 bodies which were not buried deep enough, but I think my 

 readers will spare me the recital. The regulation depth 

 was only two feet. The sergeant gave me a few brief par- 

 ticulars of the fight. It was commenced, he said, on the 

 7th of October, by the " franc-tireurs," at half-past three in 

 morning. The constant firing lit up the horizon, while the 

 rattle of the musketry so terrified the Hares and Partridges, 

 that they allowed the soldiers to catch them with their 

 hands. Bazaine's troops made several sorties, and at first 

 drove the Prussians back ; but running short of ammunition 

 were repulsed in their turn, and defeated with the loss of a 

 general. The nearest Prussian post to Metz was the " Bois 

 de Woippy," near Saulny. The French were finally worsted, 

 but not until they had left 4,000 of their foes dead on the 

 field. 



6th. As I was passing through the streets, I saw some 



