Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/444

 It was expected that he would be placed at the head of the staff of the Army of the Rhine, his rare military talents designing him for this difficult post; but he received the command of a division in the 4th corps of General Ladmirault, and assisted at Borny, at Resonville, and at the bloody battle of Saint-Privat. The 16th of August, he succeeded in completely breaking the left wing of the Prussians; at Saint-Privat he had two horses killed under him.

On the 22d of October, when Marshal Bazaine announced to the generals under his command his intention to capitulate, General de Cissey proposed energetically that the army should attempt to force a passage through the Prussian lines. His plan consisted in reuniting hastily all the resources of which the city and the army still disposed, to give to each soldier one hundred and eighty cartridges and four days' provisions, to requisition in the city and its surroundings all available horses, to harness them to the guns, and to fall with a supreme and energetic effort upon the investing army.

This plan was not adopted, and the French army marched out from Metz as prisoners.

General de Cissey was sent to Hombourg. To the patriotic grief which filled his soul, another affliction was soon added. Madame de Cissey was dying at Rennes, of a long and painful malady which neither the aid of science nor the tender care of her mother had been able to alleviate.

The General hoped that Prussia would at least allow him the liberty of shutting the eyes of her who had been the loving companion of his rude soldier's life, but this satisfaction was refused him, and he was not able to return to Rennes until after the signature of the peace preliminaries.

His name was persistently called upon at Versailles for