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My reminiscences
Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower
Ed. Boston, Roberts brothers, 1884.
Phalsbourg lay below, the
shells bursting over the town, and returning the fire of the
Prussian and Bavarian batteries placed on our front and to our
left. The town was on fire in several places. It was a curiously
entrancing sight, and a difficult one to leave; but we had a
long ride that afternoon before us, and after watching heroic
little Phalsbourg for about an hour, we turned our horses' heads
in the direction of Blamont, which place we reached at six in
the evening. We had ridden some thirty-six miles, and our poor
steeds seemed almost knocked up when we arrived.
" At Mons. Keller's house, in Luneville, August 15. -We are here
in the most luxurious of quarters, in great contrast to some
which we have been in lately ; instead of being crowded in a
small, ill-smelling room, with perhaps a bed in a cupboard, or a
sofa, and a shakedown of straw, as at Soultz or at Obermorden,
we have here separate rooms. Russell's looks out on a beautiful
garden, and on a bosquet of fine old horse-chestnuts which
remind one of the gardens of the Tuileries. The house we are in
might, in fact, be in the Faubourg St. Germain, so stately are
its saloons and its decorations à la Louis XVI. But Mons.
Keller's house has already been turned into something like a
barrack, having been full of German officers yesterday, and will
probably be as full of them again tonight. For the first time
since our arrival at Soultz we drove instead of riding here from
Blamont yesterday - most of the way in a small machine which we
had hired there. This we had to do in order to give our a rest
after our thirty-six miles ride of the previous day.
“As we were leaving Blamont, a short, swarthy young Englishman
wearing glasses came up to us. He turned out to be Lord Adair,
who, after coming out all this way, is refused leave to proceed
with the Crown Prince.” (He, however, saw a good deal later on
of the war, and described what he saw with great success.) “ It
seems an odd proceeding, arriving here and walking into a
strange gentleman's house, and asking, as if it were a matter of
daily occurrence, first where the stables are, and then for our
rooms! But I think the proprietor prefers us to the German
officers that he has had to see so much of lately.”
As far as one can observe, the Prussians seem treating the
people with great humanity and kindness. Of course there must be
black sheep in this as in any other army, and often those who
least deserve it get the credit of the deeds of these
ne'er-do-weels.
As we passed through several villages between Blamont and
Luneville the bells of the churches were ringing merry peals, it
being the Emperor's fête day - “une triste fête,” as our
coachman remarked, for Napoleon and the French people. France,
Mons. Keller says, cannot recover the effects of this war for
ten years to come; ruin is all around already. At the first
approach of the Prussians, nearly all those at Luneville who
held official positions fled; even the head of the hospital
department disappeared. |
