The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 6, 1564.

houses of Broacker, whence the view is into Flens-
burg Bay and to the point where the hamlet of
Brunsius.stands, also over to Hollnis, I perceived a
stir in the road outside, soldiers and natives in
groups standing about the houses and on the banks
knicks" they call them), and all gazing curiously
seaward, and, my attention thus challenged, I
quickly discerned the long, low, wicked-looking hull
of the sea monster, lying to near the shore, seem-
ingly about an English mile from my post of ob-
servation. There were her three slender masts, only
one of them with a yard crossing it, her low, coffin-
like turrets, her black and taciturn physiognomy,
inscrutable to the keenest gaze through the strongest
lenses. No busy stir of seamen on her deck, no
bare-armed gunners busy at their carronedes, but
all proceeding behind an impenetrable screen. Her
crew might be at dinner or asleep, or they might he
preparing behind those gloomy and mysterious bul-
warks to send a hurtling storm of missiles to the
shore. There she lay, an iron mask ; her purpose
unfathomable. It apparently was one of observa-
tion rather than of aggression. Her reconnaissance
may bear fruit hereafter, but, as far as yesterday
went, it was bloodless. She was out on a voyage of
discovery. Probably she knew that the telegraph
which had been established mainly to give notice of
her movements had been discontinued, that the bat-
tery at Brunsius had been disarmed and the pon-
toon bridges at Eckernsund broken up ; so she could
come in with comparative safety to look at the lay
of the land, and see if she could pitch upon a point
handy for doing mischief. She went up past Hollnis
and had a peep at Eckernsund, where at that time
I apprehend that one bridge still remained (for I
had crossed it not two hours previously), although I
hear that it has been since removed. After lounging
about for some time, as if half tempted to have a
shot at the man on Broacker steeple, she put coals
on and steamed away under a cloud of smoke across
the sunlit water—yesterday as smooth as glass, and
reflecting the sky's deep blue—to her old station by
Alsen Island. People said she had only been
making her observations with a view to a night
attack; and certainly the night that followed
was not ill adapted to an enterprise of the kind,
being one of the blackest darkness, but Rolf Krake
did not think fit to profit by it, and if she had
her profit might well have proved her loss, for, if I
mistake not the object of certain movements of
guns I noticed, she would have been well received.
For reasons unknown to me there are constant
changes in the batteries about here, the number of
guns placed in them, See. ; one day you see a bat-
tery armed, the next it is disarmed; the three-gun
batteries at Eckernsund were lately reduced to two
guns each ; the two 24 pounder batteries near Gam-
melsmark, lately of four guns each, last night had
only two apiece. If the weather permits the active
pushing forward of the siege works we shall soon
have powerful batteries pounding the forts at a dis-
tance of 600 yards, or less. For the present, how-
ever, things may, perhaps, go on quietly enough
for a few days. The Danes seem little prone to
dashing sorties, and disposed to let their enemy
come near. Men are valuable to them, and perhaps
they are reserving themselves fur the great conflict
which now appears inevitable, unless they choose
to evacuate Duppel and Alsen. I observe that my
colleague at Sonderberg speaks of the Danish
smoothbores being no match for the Prussian rifled
artillery, but certainly a very large proportion of the
Danish projectiles that have been sent over here are
of conical form, and fired from rifled cannon. All
that I have happened myself to see have ben of that
kind, and if the Danes fired better, or had better
luck, or if the Prussians had not their blindages to
get behind, the casualties would have been more
numerous on their side. I mean that there has
been at times a pretty sharp fire from the Danes,
but their ehells burst too high or go too far, and so
have done very little harm, the return of casualties
in the batteries sent you in a recent letter having
been since then little, if at all, augmented. What
is certain is that the Prussians have good artillery
and good artillerymen; both their 12 pounders
and 24 pounders are beautiful pieces, and their
practice is remarkably good. As for their small
arms, their zundnadelgewahr, or rifle, the more
they use it the more pleased they seem to
be with ir. This very morning I kayo been speak
ing about it with the adjutant of a fusileor regi-
ment quartered here. Hs assures me that it proves
most solid and serviceable, never gets out of order
or misses fire—not even when, as in the early part
of the campaign, the men were lying out in the
snow and their arms got wet and covered with rust.
You will remember that at Oversee the Austrian
rifles, from similar reasons of exposure to the
weather, would not go off, and a part of the troops
engaged had to charge a long distance with the
bayonet under a heavy fire from the Danes, and
suffered severe loss. A great part of that loss would
assuredly have been avoided had the Austrians had
the Prussian gun. This is a strong case in support
of the superiority of the latter weapon, the two
great advantages of which are rapidity of loading
(combined with perfect) by the breech, and ignition
of a prepared cartridge by simple
puncture, thus
avoiding the use of caps, priming, See. I hope what
I have said in this and a previous letter concerning
the excellence of the Prussian weapon may induce
some practical man in England to turn his attention
to it. The cost of the gun is not great, being only
between 12 and 13 thalers-30e. to 393. English.
As very exaggerated reports have been current
with respect to the Prussian loss in the night affair
of the 280), I may as well repeat that it amounted
to 156 officers and men killed and wounded. They
all belonged to the Bth and 18th Reeimente. No
officers were killed on the spot, but three were ex-
pected to die, and probably are dead by this time.
The whole number of officers wounded and missing
were 10; three of these (two of them wounded, and
one unhurt) remained in the hands of the Danes. I
am perfectly convinced that the Prussians give true
returns of their losses; indeed, they could have no
motive for doing otherwise.
Eight battalions of the Prussian Guard have
joined this army corps by rapid marches from the
North. Two of them are stationed at Broacker and
in its vicinity. Artillery
and great quantities of
ammunition continue to come up. The idea of
besieging Fredericia appears completely abandoned,
at least for the present.
Sines my last I have been down to Flensburg,
which I thought a vary poor sort of Schleswigian
village when I first made its acquaintance, early in
February, but which appears quite a large and
luxurious town in COMPar
Gravenstein, Broacker,
Nuisboeni,
and the other poor
with such places as
villages and hamlets about here—all greviously
overcrowded and partly famine-striken. At Flens-
burg are now the headquarters, the Crown Prince
and his staff, the principal hospitals of the army,
including one established by the Knights of St.
John, who have brought with them some newly-
devised ambulance waggons and improved stretchers
for carrying the wounded off the field. Along the
road from Flensburg to Gravenstein, Eckernsund,
and .Broacker one usually meets, especially in fine
weather, numerous officers riding or driving up to
the front to visit the works and batteries, take a
general view of the progress of affairs, and, perhaps,
conveying orders from the Field-Mttrshel. But
Flensburg is rather far off for those who desire to
note as closely as possible all the incidents of the
campaign, and such remain up here, roughing it as
best they may. Time want of accommodation within
five or six miles of the Dappel lines is such that it
seems scarcely possible for headquarters to come
nearer than Gravenstein, which itself is already
overcrowded, and the Schloss taken up by Prince
Frederick Charles and his staff, Prince Charles, the
King's brother, being also still there,
After a bright gleam the rain is again coming
heavily down, and the evening closes gloomily and
with little promise of better weather. Water and
mist shroud land and sea with a thick veil, and
even through the glass little is to be discerned of
what passes in front. Up by the trenches.
north from the Vetraningbund, I see that the
soldiers have been erecting straw huts, propped
against the banks and hedges, as some slight pro-
tection from the wet. Straw architecture is much
cultivated up here, and the soldiers make out of that
material and a few sticks very neat and rather pic-
turesque picket-huts and sentry-boxes, the latter
framed out of four uprights, the two front ones
somewhat higher than the hinder ones, with a few

I hear that three of the officers wounded on the
28th are dead, and that another is dying. There are
with this army six servitor brothers of the Itauhe
Haus, at Hamburg, a charitable institution, who go
on the field under fire to bear away the wounded.
The Prince of Pleas and Count Stolberg (President
of the Prussian Upper Chamber), who hive been
here in connection with the establishment of the
hospitals of Sr. John, accompanied them and led the
way on the first occasion on which they performed
this dangerous service.

(From the Times Special Correspondent at the Danish
Head-quarters.)
DANISH HEADQUARTERS, SONDERBORO,
March 30.
After all the storm and wrack of last Monday
we have fallen in with still waters again. The
Prussians gave scarcely any sign of life yesterday,
and only limited their action to about a dozen

cannon shots fired at random at half-an hour or an

hour's interval; but their artillery, however
loud, did not disturb the serene calmness of the
lovely spring day. Credit was given to them for
harbouring some great designs under their ominous
silence. Our slumbers were uneasy and fitful
towards the short hours of Monday night and last
night, as we were naturally expecting some such

reveilles as had roused us out of our warm beds at
three o'clock on Monday morning. Nothing came

of it, however. The Prussians have not much bet-
ter chances of carrying the D ybbol bastions by storm
at this moment than they had on the Bth of
February, when they first came in sight of them.

Nor will their cannonade have much effect towards

crippling the Danish batteries, preparatory to an
assault, unless it be a vast deft: more brisk uu l bet-

.er maintained than it has been for the last two

weeks, a period of titre during which about 8,000

shots and shells have made little more impression
on the Danish earth mounds and breastworks than
the merest scratch of a pin. Ihe work must begin
anew, and Heaven only knows how tedious the re-
petition of the same bootless efforts will turn out to

,he chronicler of these unsatisfactory events.

Mr. Herbert and his friend, Mr. Hall, left us this
morning, after a stay here of only nine days. The
former gentleman, after being the actual nine days'
wonder to the Danish army, has departed, the true
hero of the hour. I walked and rode out with him
yesterday for the best part of the morning and
afternoon, and we scarcely passed a man or officer,
on foot or on horseback, that did not greet him and
hail him lustily as a comrade and a friend. Not a
few broke from the ranks as they marched by us in
columns and shook bim by the hand, till they
almost wrung the arm from his shoulder. I
never saw such genuine enthusiasm among These
stout-hearted, and, to all appearance, phlegmatic
people. His constant presence in the trenches
and at outposts has made Mr. Herbert familiar
with the vast majority of the Danish soldiers;
but even those who had no knowledge of him
by eyesight have learnt to single him out of a
first glance from mere description. The authorities
at headquarters seem no less struck with the
nov ,lty and oddity of the "generous whim" than
the humble privates with whom the hon. gentleman
courted friendship and comradeship. They have
charged Mr. Herbert with despatches for the War-
office at Copenhagen, and we have little doubt here
that General Gerlach, the Commander-in-Chief, has
sent up the Englishman's name among the candi-
dates for the decoration of the Dannebrog.
The admiration of these Danes for the English
volunteer " ambulance man" is, to say the least,
reciprocated by this latter. Mr. Herbert himself,
as well as his friend, Mr. Hall, and Captain Bond,
all three of whom stood behind the foremost breast-
work, were very elcquent about the calm and firm
attitude assumed by these undemonstrative North-
erners as they took their places on the trenches,
finite g them but thinly and feebly with their inade-
quate numbers, and bearing in their countenance
the consciousness that the work of at least three
men devolved upon each of them, and the determi-
nation to do that work, or give up their life in
their endeavour to do it. The Prussians who ate
tacked the Dybbol line were, we are assured, no
more than 6,000, and so far they did not greatly
overmatch their opponents; but behind those six
battalions 20,000 were drawn up; and had the van-
guard found any where a vulnerable point in the
Danish armour the main array would have come up
with such a powerful onset as the scanty Danish
lines could hardly hope to resist; yet, calm and com-
posed, did the Danes stand their ground. They could
see the enemies' columns forming in great masses in
the dim distance. Yet they gave their fire with cool
indifference, and when their turn came to draw up in
columns, and to sally forth as skirmishers, they left
their flimsy shelter and marched out in the gray
morning light, never asking if two or ten to one
were the odds they were about to encounter. Yet
the majority of these Danes seem to all the English
gentlemen who see thcm,as they do to me, rather mere
militiamen than real soldiers. They have hardly
any military step, mien, or bearing; they are
scarcely half drilled, have but little skill in the use
of their rifles, know not much about general or even
partial evolutions; they are eaw and uncouth, heavy
and clumsy; but the stuff they are made of is the
very best upon earth; and it is most admirably cal-
culated for defensive work, for the task of patience
and stern resolution which is imposed upon them.
Gen. Gerlach published yesterday an order of the
day, in which he bestowed the due meed of praise
upon the regiments engaged in the affair of Mon-
day, with an account of the casualties consequent
upon it. It does not differ materially from the state-
ment in my last letter. The killed are set down at
4 officers and 30 men ; the wounded, 3 officers and
111 men ; the Prussian prisoners were 4 officers
and 27 men.

The Execution of the Leominster Murderer.

The execution of Thomas Watkins for the murder of his
wife, MaryWatkins,at llennor, near Leominster, on the 18th
Jan. last, took place yesterday morning in front of the
Hereford County Gaol.
f his unfortunate woman was remarkably handsome, and
her good looks were a continual cause of jealousy to her
husband, who left her in a fit of passion. The fellow be-
came a confirmed idler, and his wife, who had now two chil-
dren, went out to work, chiefly as a laundress, to support
herself and family, and occasionally her husband too. He
frequently annoyed her with insinuations as to the doubt-
fulness of her chastity, which she repudiated. At length
Watkins left altogether, and enlisted into the Royal Ma-
rines. But he soon deserted, and at length it became
known to the Poor-law Guardians that he frequently par-
took of the food allowed to his wife and family for their
sustenance, and they at once summoned her before them.
She confessed that he had returned to the neighbourhood,
and they endeavoured to obtain from her such particulars
as would lead to his apprehension. Her second examina-
tion was to have taken place on the day after she was found
murdered, Watkins himself had formed an opinion that
she intended to give him up. He accordingly waylaid her
and murdered her, in order to prevent her from saying any-
thing against him.

Subsequent to his condemnation prisoner confessed the
murder, and he added that immediately he found she was
dead he at once determined to plead guilty; though the love
of life afterwards induced him to deny his guilt. He at the
same time expressed his sincere contrition for the offence,
and said she had given hint great provocation.
On Sunday the condemned sermon was preached to him
by the chaplain of the gaol, the Rev. Joseph Barker. On
the previous day (Saturday) he was visited for the last time
by his mother, his sister, and his son, a little boy about 12
years old, from whom the friends have succeeded in keep-
mg the dread sentence that awaited his father.
On Monday night he denied being implicated in the
drowning of two men of whom he had been jealous, and
whose bodies were found in the Lugg in November last.
The erection of the scaffold drew a crowd of well-dressed
persons to the spot, and yesterday morning at 8 o'clock
there must have been many thousands present. The execu-
tioner was Smith, of Dudley. The prisoner walked firmly
up to the drop, and died very quietly.

THE ATTEMPTED MURDER AT MIRFIELD RE-
rORMATORY.- Joseph Broadhead, the young man who is
in 'custody on the charge of attempting to murder Miss
Louisan. Johnson, stands remanded to Thursday next.
His victim was reported on Monday evening as having passed
as good a night as could be expected.