Although huge Armies had penetrated so swiftly into France on the morrow of the frontier victories, there were still, besides the fortress of Metz, which was in an exceptional case, several other strongholds which stood out defiant upon the main lines of the German communications. They were Verdun, Toul, Bitsche, Phalsburg, Strasburg, and, at a later stage, Belfort. Each of these, except the last-named, required to be, and were, watched or invested by troops drawn from the active Armies or the reserves in Germany; but they had little or no influence upon the colossal events which decided the issue of what we have called the Campaign of Sedan. Strasburg alone was a cause of any anxiety, because the Germans were eager to obtain possession of a fortress the fall of which would give them undisputed command of the Rhine, and become of great value in the event of unlooked-for and improbable reverses. General von Werder, with the Baden Division, after the battle of Woerth, had been sent to invest the town, and he arrived before it on the 11th. It is not intended to relate in these pages the siege of Strasburg, which properly belongs to the story of the Franco-German war as a whole. The point to note is that the regular siege was preceded by a useless bombardment. The engineer desired to proceed in the orthodox way; the chief of the staff wished to try the more violent method. He insisted that a bombardment would terrify the inhabitants, and make them exert such a pressure on the Governor, General Uhrich, a gallant veteran, as would compel him to surrender. The dispute was determined by an appeal to the Great Head-quarters, then at Pont à Mousson, and General von Moltke, who desired that the place should be taken in the shortest possible time, and that the 40,000 men before it might be available for other operations, decided in favour of the bombardment. The consequence was that dreadful sufferings were inflicted upon the inhabitants of Strasburg, and terrible devastation brought upon the town, but that the cruelty did not attain the end in view; and that the wise engineer was permitted to apply his method at a moment when, had his advice been adopted, the besieging Army would have been near the success which was ultimately attained. The bombardment of Strasburg was not only an error regarded from a military point of view, it was a great political blunder; for who can doubt that the agonies endured in the last days of August, 1870, and the resentment created by the awful destruction of life and property, have materially helped to render inveterate that hostility to German rule which even now reigns in Strasburg as strong as ever. Strasburg would have been captured, probably at an earlier date, had there been no bombardment, humanity would have been spared a heartrending spectacle, and Germany would have profited by showing some deference towards the feelings and some regard for the lives of