¶ “Summer was passing,” says Lowe, “Autumn was coming fast; France had turned from the sap green of the vineyards to the golden hues of the harvest; but it was the harvest of Death.”
¶ Now came a gigantic cavalry movement, to the right, a prodigious wheel, to round-up the French MacMahon, who had dodged and doubled in the basin of the Meuse. “The chase,” said Bismarck, “reminds me of a wolf hunt in the Ardennes, but when we arrived, the wolf had vanished!”
To make common ground with Bazaine, MacMahon concentrated his troops, with the idea of breaking the siege of Metz, where 175,000 French soldiers were undergoing the horrors of starvation.
The Germans outwitted MacMahon, who finally decided to make a last stand around the frontier fortress of Sedan.
¶ On the night of August 31, the Germans closed in on him, in what proved to be one of the momentous battles in the world’s history.
Von Roon and Moltke had 121,000 infantry and 618 cannon, the French 70,000 of all arms, 320 cannon and 70 Mitrailleuses.
On the slopes of Frenois, the Prussian King, Bismarck and a brilliant retinue witnessed for ten hours the dreadful carnage reddening the fields.
¶ “More artillery!” cried the King, surprised that the French would not yield.
In the King’s retinue stood Bismarck, a crowd of princes, dukes, aide-de-camps, marshals, besides army attaches of Russia, England and America.