MacMahon did, as we imagined, attempt to relieve Metz. Having
received reinforcements and supplies until be had an army of five corps of soldiers, one of marines, and about one of Gardes Mobiles, Franc-Tireurs, and other sundries, say 180,000 in all on paper, but owing to terrible desertions about 150,000 in fact, he left Chfllons on the 22nd for Montmedy. His front spread, of course, over many miles ; but the general movement was clearly eastward, the advanced cavalry having been reported at Stenay. Instead, however, of moving at the forced rate, thirty miles a day, or at the "French rate," twenty miles a day, or the English rate, which used to be fifteen miles, he did not move six, getting, it is supposed, "entangled" in the defiles of the Argonne. The cause, however, remains absolutely unknown ; and until it is known there can be no criticism of the Marshal's generalship, nothing but the bars statement that he moved so slowly as to give Baron von Moltke time to clok him up in his deadly grip. The best expla-
nation we have seen is, that MacMahon, suspecting demoralization among the men defeated at Worth, waited for the 13th Corps, which only left Paris on the 29th.
