The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-12 00:00:00

skirmishers, but preferred to give time to the main
body of the enemy to come up within range of their
cannon if they were so inclined. In the meanwhile,
however, the alarm was sounded in the Danish
camp, and the whole army throughout Sundewed
and Alsen was under arms. When morning
dawned, however, those two small bands of in-
truders were seen all alone crouching in the Danish
trenches, and upon a first show, on the part of the
Danes, to send forth skirmishers to dislodge them,
they went "back again."
Yesterday, as the day before, nearly at the
same hour, between 2 and 3, the Germans broke
the silence of the night and morning, and' there
was a rather lively cannonade at the Dybbol
bastions, with a continuation of the bombardment
of miserable Sonderborg. To-day the entertain-
ment is still the same, though it has been kept up
for a few hours longer. The noise began between
10 and 11 o'clock in the morning, and appears to be
gradually dying off just as I am writing (half-past
5). The fire against the Dybbol bastions (why
need I repeat it? is mere waste of powder and
shot, although the cannon that batters those
trenches is no longer at a mile and a half's dise
tance, but scarcely, as I said, one-third, or at the
utmost one half mile. Vast as the array of the
Prussian cannon may be from the Avnbjerg, Dybbol
churchyard, Ragebol, and other spots along the line,
their cannonade is not sufficiently well maintained
to work any lasting mischief. Whether it arises
from want of a well-settled resolution, or from
scarcity of ammunition at hand, or from lack of
energy and endurance, or from the liability of their
newfangled cannon to get out of order upon con-
stant use, the fact is that at no time has the shower
of projectiles been so thick and so constant as to
take away the breath of the defenders, to bewilder
their minds, and so harass and belabour them as to
prevent their standing to their guns and repairing
such damage as their bastions may suffer. After
nearly four weeks' cannonade, the Prussian progress
may be reported in those few ott-repeated words—
" the Dybbol position is uninjured."
The same cannot be said of Sonderborg. At the
time I posted my last letter, aboat one-third of the
town was either burnt or totally destroyed. Since
that time, twice more have the heavy guns of the
Broagerland batteries been roaring against the
quarters still standing, adding ruin to ruin. I have
just been out to-day', to see the usual spectacle, and
took my standing on the south-eastern shore,
whence I could command a view of the whole line
of fire. About one shell every two or three minutes
was falling upon the town, and twice as fast was
the cannonade ea-shanged simultaneously between
the Prussian and Da
hill. batteries on Dybbola
hill. The sharp ringing bang of the latter
strangely contrasted with the A' 'ng and solemn
boom of the former. The Broage:land batte-
ries fired against the wind, and their s:-"ell was
heard struggling through the air, and rattling' like
a thunder-clap for fully 20 seconds before it reachen
its gaol. The efforts of these batteries were today
especially directed against the houses lying on the
slope of the hill, between the Town-hall and the
castle. Some of the buildings immediately behind
the Town-hall were on fire, and their smoke was
carried by the wind right across the Wemmingbund
Bsy up to the very muzzle of the very cannon frcm
which the incendiary shell had taken its start.
Masses of smoke rose from more than one point
behind the:crest of,Dybbol, playing a brilliant part
in to-day's action, and the effect of its various hues,
if transferred to canvass, would have made the
glory of a first-rate landscape painter. The sky
was swept clear of clouds by the keen north-east
winds, but a rather heavy haze lingered on the
western horizon, and formed a background for the
phantasmagoria of the smoke playing before it,
puffs of gunpowder smoke flitting here and there
along the hill-crest, columns of incendiary smoke
slowly rolling heavenwards, ashy pale at the summit
where they vanished in heaven's blue, dark and red
at the base, where the vapour blended with the fiery
tongues darting through it. The damage to the town
seems no very serious matter when seen from the
outside. Moss of the roofs visible from where I
stood are still untouched, and the Town-hall is
almost the only building through the crumbled walls
of which daylight shines. The real injury in thnin-
terior is, however, terrific, as I was able to ascertain
by personal observation these last two days. The
burgomaster's house, that of Dr. Mathison, with
many others in the lower town, nearly at thewater's
edge, which had escaped the fury of the first day's
bombardment, have been cruelly chattered since
then. The Slot, or castle, the foremost object on the
shore, lying precisely where the Alssund widens
into open sea between the Wemmingbund and
Horup Hay, has been repeatedly hit, but stands yet
almost wholly unscathed. It would be no very ma-
terial loss if it were levelled with the ground, for
the barracks and sick wards established in its empty
and dilapidated apartments are now untenanted, and
its downfall would be unattended with lose of life.
As to the edifice itself, it possesses no other beauty
than that of bulk; it is a plain, square, yellow brick
structure, with round, low, flat-roofed turrets at the
four angles—a mere unsightly cumbrance of a large
plot of ground which could be much better dedicated
to the shipping interest, converting it into docks
and marine stores. It possesses, however, some his-
torical interest, as the spot where the rathless
tyrant Christian 11. of Danmark, was kept prisoner
for seven years by:his rebellious subjects previous to
his removal to still stricter confinement at another
castle in Zeeland, where he expiated by long suffer-
ings the crimes with which the early years of his
reign were stained. The dungeon in which the
wretched monarch was immured is still shown for
money by the town policeman. Were even the Prus-
sian shells to strike daylight into the darkness of that
prison-house, it is not likely that the memorials
connected with it would perish, or that such a lesson
as Christian's fate conveys to despots would be lost.
The total destruction of this ill-starred Sonder-
borg is the only intelligible part of the Prussian
programme, and its execution will cost them much
time and labour. For the rest, it is idle, I should
think, for them to hope that their bombardment
may cause any permanent or irreparable injury
to the bridges (not one plank of which has
yet been struck, or to any material extent cripple
the means of communication between Alsen and
Sondewed, between Sonderborg and Dybbol.
Nor is there much chance of their catching the
Danes napping, for their watchfulness is carried to
a fault, and some of the ease-loving officers com-
plain of the frequency of the unnecessary nightly
alarms. As to silencing the batteries of the Dybbol
line, and carrying its bastions by storm, it is an
achievement which will require a brisker fire than
the Prussians have hitherto been t.ble to kindle ; a
greater pluck than they have as yet evinced. The
expectation of the Danes is excited to the utmost
stretch, and every night we go to bed with the hope
that our slumbers may soon be broken by the trum-
pets giving us warning of an attack. But precisely
benause the Danes so ardently wish it, it is natural
that the Prussians should pause before they venture
upon what may turn out a desperate attempt,
SONDERBORG LADEGAARD, April 7,
The townspeople of Sonderborg seem determined
to risk a thousand lives rather than leave their fur-
niture a prey to the flames which are rapidly con-
suming their shattered dwellings. The procession
of csrtloads of their trumpery household goods still