190 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
heard at the head of their column, which then emerged from the 
gates and marching smartly and very quickly, right up to the 
re-entering angle, descended from the road, piled arms fifty yards 
off, returned to the road, and stood easy. These were the regulars ; 
then came battalions of the Garde Mobile, more slowly, with enor¬ 
mous gaps and many stragglers; they were very tedious, but as each 
battalion after piling arms arrived at the re-entering angle, it was 
taken charge of by its escort, and its officers returned, wearing their 
swords, to the town to surrender themselves individually afterwards. 
Long strings of country people, mostly women, passed and repassed 
in rear of the Prussians to the angle of exit, where, many of them 
convulsed with sobbing, they took leave of their relations, sons and 
brothers, in the Garde Mobile, probably expecting never to see 
them more; the men concerned wept and wailed quite as demon¬ 
stratively as the women: next morning, however, at a moment’s 
notice, they were all released to their homes, on condition of serving 
no more against Germany during the war; they mostly belonged to 
neighbouring villages, and the roads were covered with joyous lads 
in red trousers, half “ Prussifies ” in spirit already. The regulars 
had mostly left by railway trains for the East the night before. 
As soon as the prisoners were all received, the German troops 
filed through the town, to see what they had done and what they 
had won, and, leaving sufficient garrison in the place, passed to their 
various billets in outlying villages, many of them receiving orders 
the same night for their onward movement towards Paris, Montmedy, 
&c., the next day. The streets were densely crowded with people, 
who, after the French manner, had flocked into the fortress on the 
original approach of the invaders; provisions had been plenty with 
them, but their wild and haggard faces, still set with the stare of 
confronting mortal peril, together with the panorama of shattered 
buildings, with black ragged holes, some as large as doorways, in all 
directions, masses of still burning ruin, and other ready to fall, gave 
one some idea of the consternation which must have prevailed in 
such a crowded centre of fire.* 
It is true that inhabitants as well as soldiers (fire* picquets 
excepted) lived mainly in cellars during the bombardment, and in 
such wine-growing countries the cellars are plentiful and substantial; 
but they felt each shock and heard each explosion, and feared to be 
eventually buried alive by the burning ruins. Therefore they prayed 
* I happened to be detained a night in Thionville about a week after the capitulation, and 
found the condition of the houses not much restored, but that of the inhabitants nearly entirely 
so: owing to the movement of troops westward, many soldiers were billeted on all such houses as 
remained efficient, and I could not but be struck by the easy and confident relations existing 
between the householders and their guests : these latter were as good-tempered and orderly as if 
amongst their own people ; cramped up for space, I saw children, too young to act a part in such 
matters, already playmates with enormous cuirassiers: and I take this occasion to declare, that 
everything that I saw and heard from either side at all places which I visited, causes me to believe 
that the German armies in this war have been more moderate, orderly, and civilised, than ever 
was invading army before; and to look with intense distrust on all tales attributing to them 
wanton outrage or irregularity. 
