The French mail which arrived this morning has brought the
conclu- sion of Marshal CLAUSEL'S melancholy bulletin.
" The operation (of cannonading one of the gates of Constantine) was conti- nued on the third day ; and the gate was taken, but badly. My wish was to quarter some sappers there, and afterwards some grenadier companies, in order to effect an entrance into the town; but the effort failed of success. The only resource which then remained for us was to retire, as we had no provisions. The half of our subsistence for fifteen days bail been nearly buried in the mire at Mansoure, and had been abandoned or plundered by the soldiers intrusted with the duty of defending it. About tight o'clock in the morning of the 24th, we quitted our positions at Mansoure, at the distance of 750 feet from the place; and also our position at Condiat Atia, at the gate of the south, where the vanguard was stationed. We were at first followed by some hundred men from the place. Horsemen advanced upon us from every direction ; but their number, which at first might have been nearly two thousand, diminished on the following days ; and we saw no more of them on the fourth day at Rach- el-Aba, where, according to many, we were to meet with certain death."
CONCLUSION.
" Our retreat has been effected in good order. The soldiers, though sick, have behaved perfectly well. We bring back all our cannon ; and I leave a good garrison, consisting mostly of natives, at Guelnea, which is a stronger poet than Constantine.
" Our Arabs behold with satisfaction these arrangements. We thus erect s power against a power ; and, from the disposition of the public mind, I am bound to believe that the authority of Achmed will fall before that of or Bey. " Perhaps, by sueh means, we shall have no further need of an expedition to render ourselves masters of the town of Constantine, which is finer, larger, and more important than Bona, Algiers, and Oran."
It appears from the French papers and the correspondence of the
Morning Post, that the army was totally " demoralized" before it reached Constantine. One regiment gave way immediately ; enother refused to fight at all; and the reserve pillaged the supplies and dis- persed.
" A Major-General," says the Post's correspondent, without vouching, how- ever, for the truth of the story, " whose name is well known, and will much surplise you when you are acquainted with it, is represented to have been the first to shout out the fatal ' Sauve qui peut ! ' He subsequently went on his knees to Marshal Clausel and the Duke de !Nemours, imploring them to spare him, and omit his name in the impending order of the day. He asked to be allowed to charge the Arabs and get himself killed ; but Clause], though pro- mising to conceal his name, desired him to go back to the Paris drawing-rooms, where he had obtained his epaulets, and must only wear them."
The Arab cavalry is said to have amounted to about 12,000. Only a handful of French soldiers found their way back to Bona. The Duke 1)1: NEMOURS had arrived at Toulon, on his way to Paris. The only officer of rank reported among the dangerously wounded, is General TREZEI., whom ABDEL KADER defeated last year. It is rumoured that the Duke D'ANGOULEME has died of the cholera at Goritz in Illyria.
The floods continue to excite alarm in France. A greater rise in the Seine is still expected ; and the inhabitants of Chaton, as a measure of precaution, have been invited to leave their dwellings. Alarm is felt for the bridges of Paris ; and the greatest precautions are taken to prevent barges breaking adrift, which it is felt would be most destruc- tive.
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