All the more considerable Paris sorties appear to occur on
a Friday. There was one on the 23rd of September, on the 30th of September, on the 14th of October, and on the 21st of October, all of them on a considerable scale ; and very likely there was one yesterday, of which we shall hardly hear till Monday, so long are now the delays in transmitting even telegraphic news. At about 2 in the afternoon of yesterday week a strong fire was opened from Mont Valerien, and under cover of this fire a great sortie took place towards Bougival and Versailles. A body of French the numbers of which are estimated by different authorities at most extraordinarily different figures,—the last telegram from the Times' special correspondent at Versailles says 65 battalions, which must be a typographic error,—but probably from 15,000 to 20,000
strong, of whom only about a third, on the left, were actively engaged,—supported by 48 guns, attacked and drove in the Prus- sian outposts, excited great hopes among the French in Versailles, and after a fight in which they lost two guns, taken by the Land- wehr of the Prussian Guard in a bayonet charge, and about 100 pri- soners, retired again under the guns of Fort Valerien. The losses seem to have been some 400 killed and wounded, besides the prisoners, on the French side, and some 300 killed and- wounded on the German side ; but the only question of any interest is what the sortie was intended to effect, and whether the French levies fought well or ill. The Times' correspondent believes the sortie was not intended to do more than discover the position of the new German batteries and season the French troops ; but he says be saw two mounted officers encouraging the men to come out from under the cover of the vineyards, and not very successful in persuading them to do so. At any rate, the two guns captured by the Landwehr of the Guard were not stoutly defended. On the whole, we cannot say, from the little we hear of the engagement, that it shows the Army of Paris to have yet reached any high point of discipline.
