In reply to these charges we offer the following observations. If M. de Chaudordy understood anything about war, he would not complain of the sacrifices which our operations have imposed upon the French people, but would, on the contrary, be surprised at our relative moderation. Moreover, the German troops respect private property everywhere, although they can certainly not be expected, after long marches and severe fighting, and after enduring cold and hunger, to refrain from securing as comfortable quarters as possible, or from demanding, or, if the inhabitants have fled, helping themselves to absolute necessaries such as food, drink, firing, &c. Moreover, instead of seizing private property, as M. de Chaudordy asserts, our soldiers have frequently done the reverse, and at the risk of their own lives, rescued for the owners works of art and other valuables which were endangered by the fire of the French guns. We have burnt down villages, but does our accuser know nothing of our reasons for doing so? Is he not aware that in those villages franctireurs have treacherously fired upon our people, and that the inhabitants have given every possible assistance to the murderers? Has he heard nothing of the franctireurs who recently left Fontaines, and who boldly stated that the object of their march was to inspect the houses in the neighbourhood which were worth pillaging? Can he bring forward a single well-established case of outrage committed by our soldiers such as those of which the Turcos and French guerillas have been guilty? Have our troops cut off the noses or ears of their wounded or dead opponents, as the French did at Coulours on the 30th of November? On the 11th of December, when 800 German prisoners should have been brought into Lille, only 200 of them actually arrived. Many of these were severely wounded, yet instead of affording them succour, the people of the town pelted them with snowballs, and shouted to the soldiers to bayonet them. The frequency with which the French have fired at the bearers of flags of truce is something unheard of. There is good evidence for the truth of the following incident, however incredible it may appear. On the 2nd of December, a German sergeant named Steinmetz, at the express desire of an officer of the Garibaldian troops, wrote a letter to his lieutenant in Mirecourt, stating that if our side took reprisals against Vittel or other places in the neighbourhood, the ears of fourteen Prussian prisoners, who had fallen into the hands of the guerillas in a surprise attack, would be cut off.