the victory, and obtained the object of our sacrifices. That evening Bazaine’s army had finally retired to Metz, and even French officers whom we had captured admitted that they now believed their cause was lost. The Saxons, who had made long marches on the two previous days, were able to take an important part in the battle near the village of Saint Privat. They now occupied the road to Thionville, so that Metz was entirely surrounded by our troops. It appeared that the Chancellor did not quite approve of the course taken by the military authorities in both battles. Among other things he said that Steinmetz had abused the really astounding gallantry of our men--“he was a spendthrift of blood.” The Minister spoke with violent indignation of the barbarous manner in which the French conducted the war; they were said to have fired upon the Geneva cross and even upon a flag of truce. Sheridan seemed to have speedily got on a friendly footing with the Minister, as I was instructed to invite him and his two companions to dinner on the following evening. At 11 o’clock on the 20th of August the Chancellor received a visit from the Crown Prince, who was stationed with his troops about twenty-five English miles from Pont à Mousson on the road from Nancy to Châlons. In the afternoon some twelve hundred prisoners, including two carts conveying officers, passed through the Rue Notre Dame in charge of a detachment of Prussian cuirassiers. Sheridan, Forsythe and MacLean dined that evening with the Minister, who kept up a lively conversation in good English with the American general. The Chief and his American guests had champagne and porter. The latter was drunk out of pewter mugs, one of which the Minister filled for me. I mention this because no one else at table had porter, and the gift was particularly welcome, as since we left Saarbrücken we had had no beer. Sheridan, who was known as a successful soldier on the Federal side in the last year of the American Civil War, spoke a good deal. He told us of the hardships he and his companions had undergone during the ride from the Rocky Mountains to Chicago, of the fearful swarms of mosquitoes, of a great heap of bones in California or thereabouts in which fossils were found, and of buffalo and bear hunting, &c. The Chancellor also told some hunting stories. One day in Finland he found himself in dangerous proximity to a big bear. It was white with snow, and he had barely been able to see it. “At last I fired, however, and the bear fell some six paces from me. But it was not killed, and might get up again. I knew what I had to expect, and so without stirring I quietly reloaded, and as soon as it stirred I shot it dead.”