The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-08 00:00:00

THE WAR IN DENMARK.

(From the Times Special Correspondent at the DanisJ
Head-quarters.)
DANISH HEADQUARTERS, SONDERBORG,
April 2.
This is the first day in which we have seen such
serious work as may betoken the beginning of the

end. We are still all stunned with the din of real
war, and it is not without great difficulty that I

collect my thoughts and compose my mind so as to

give a tolerably distinct and inteligible narrative

of passing events.
I had set out for a pleasure ride on horseback
with a friend a few minutes after 3 o'clock in the

afternoon. The morning had been rainy; but a

strong north-westerly wind had driven the e10u43

from the heavens, and the weather was sharply cold
though bright. The usual slack and unmeaning

cannonade had gone on the whole morning; but we
had learnt to despise it, and had not even turned
out to inquire what its purpose or its results might
be. The artillery, however, on Dybbol-bill soon

quickened its fire to a pitch not only unprecedented
during the previous phases of this war, but hardly

o be matched by anything we had read or heard of

a any war. The cannonade was appalling. It was
he battle of the angels and demons, as imagined by

Milton. We flattered ourselves for a moment that
all this brisk dieetarge proceeded from the Danish

b:stions. We knew that Prussian batteries had lately
been descried on the summit of the Avnbjerg, on
BON ers.l points about Dybbul village, and on other

pobitions along the line, and fancied tbat the Danes,
bent on the destruction of the enemy's works,
wished to show the sluggish Germans with what

activity end to what purpose cannon should be
handled. We mode our way on foot to the Windmill
battery by the south-eastern shore ; then again
shifted our place of observation, and went to the top

of n hill, in the centre of a windmill which crowns
Sonderborg on the north, where an arbour in the

corner of the garden commands the most exten-
sive view of the Dybbol heights across the Sound.
From the vantage ground we thus successively
occupied we had it in our power to see the flash of
every gun, and to follow the path of every shell.
The Danes, it soon became apparent, had not taken
the initiative in the Action ; it was the Prussians
who, after all that mere farce of a three weeks'
cannonade, opened their fire with a will, and went
to work cs if they really meant mischief. Possibly,
they had hitherto merely kept up their play at
cannon bal!s to give themselves time to complete
their works in front of the Danish lines; possibly,
also, their Government had, at last, given up all
hopes or fears of a Conference, and had telegraphed
to their commanders that the time for shilly-shally-
ing was past, an I that it behoved them to show
that forbearance did not on their part arise from
weakness. They had hitherto limited their activity
to the throwing a few hundred shells daily from
their batteries at Brosgeriand. Once only they bad
tried the range of a few field pieces from the top of
Avabjerg ; but to-day they unmasked their batteries
both from that summit and from Dibsol
and their 24 pounders thundered all along the line
from extretne left to extreme right. The fire was
so well maintained that it was difficult for a spec-
tator to follow the reports as they crowded upon
one another, and often two and more at one time.
Same of us counted as many as 25 shots in the
minute, and an Englishman assured us that 2,500
shell- had flown through the air in the lapse of an.
hoar. All this furious attack was mainly directed.
against the Dybbol bastions, where the Danes
showed the best countenance, and for a long time
gave the enemy as good as he sent. The batteries
from Broagerland, besides aiding in the work im-
mediately before them, found leisure to bestow some
of their attention upon Sonderborg, and about 100
of their shells were aimed at the castle, at the tete
de port, and at as many cf the lower buildings of the
town as were more immediately within their reach.
I have not as yet been able to ascertain what amount
of damage all this shower of projectiles may have
done to the Danish line. Some of the officers who
have just returned from outposts assure these who
are willing to believe them that the mischief is but
trifling, and that the bastions are none the worse
for the tremendous noise which has been for more
than six hours incessantly kept up against them.
The evidence of our own eyes, however, would
rather induce ns to make some abatement in these
flattering assertions: The fire of the Prussians was
returned by the Danes with less spirit as the day
declined, and it is difficult to share the assurance
entertained at head-quarters here, that the Prus-
sians, after all the havoc of the day, will be as far
from having it in their power to venture on an
assault to-morrow as they were in their previous

attempts of the 17th and 28th of last month. That
none of the batteries on this side have been silenced,
we have been able to ascertain. The drawbridge at
No. 6 has been burnt, however, and at No. 10 a
musketry fire has been heard, a circumstance which:
might induce a belief that the Prussians have

shown themselves at an inconvenient proximity.
Whatever the material consequences of to-day's
action may be to either of the belligerents, the mere
distant sight of it was appalling to us neutrals.
The very farm houses that were burning to the
ground on many quarters of the landscape—s
never-failing accessory to these scenes of destruc-
tion—glowed in the distance with hardly any per.
ceptible flame or smoke, so utterly was every vapour
swept from the ground by the too violent blast. As
the sun set and darkness settled on the face of the
earth the wooden barracks in the -vicinity of the
bastions also caught fire in four or five distinct
places, and their glare gleamed dingy red, like the
lava of a volcano, as if the embers smouldered and
crackled smothered by the overpowering force of the
very element that generally feeds fire. A crowd of
soldiers, mixed with a few of the• townspeople,
had thronged around us as we stood on our hill-
top, and dumb amazement, vague terror, and a
sort of wild joy were depicted on every counte-
nance. There was sublimity enough in the scene
before us to strike a deep
sensation into the com-
monest nature.

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GARIBALDI'S PAGE IN HISTORY—The
Corporal at the Christening—The Greek Chair at
Oxford, &c. &c., in FtiN this week. One Penny.

- -
ROY AL ITALIAN OPERA, Covent-Garden.
Graziani—Signor Mario.
TO-MO R ROW EVENING (Saturday , April 9. will be per-
formed. for the first time this season, Donizetti's opera, LA.
FAVORITA. Leonora, Mdlle. Emiiz Lagrua, her fir.t ap-
p,arance in that char .c'ee in England; Inez, Madame Tag-
liafico ; Alfonso XI., Signor Graziani ; Baldassar. , Signor
dittri ; Don Gasparo, Signor Rossi ; and Ftrdivando, Signor
trio. Conductor, Mr. Costs.
The incidental Divertissemevt will be supported by Mdlle.
Mdlle. Carmine, and Mrille. Navarre.
Commence at half past Light.
Pit tickets, is. ; amphitheatre sta Is, 10s. 6d., 75., and 55..
amphitheatre. 25. 6d. Boxes, stalls, and tickets may be had
at th,• box-offic • under the portico of the theatre, and at the
principal musicsellers' and librarians'.

THEATRE ROYAL DR UR Y-L AN E.
Managers, :Messrs. Edmond Falconer and
F. B. Ct atterton.

TIII3 EVENING, 3IAGILI TOYS. Miss Lydia Thomp-

son.
After which, will be pi •odnced the Grand Stage
Revival of Shak,,pere's Chrinicle o: Historical Play, entitled
the First Part of
HE \TRY T FIE
No pains or evpcnse will be spas ed to render this presen-
tation of our Nation .1 Author's most popular, and it may be
said, most rep•esentative English Drama, a becom ng Corn
me noratfon, in example, at the Nat: omit Theatre, of ti
grandeur and corn .rehensiye character of his genius.
The cast will include impersonations b y those emincAt
trtists, Mr. PHELPS, Mr. Walter Montgolikery, Mr. Walter
Lacy, M Addis() Arr. Ryder, Mr. ttobe.rt
ndenh Roxby. Mr.
Mr.
Barrett, Mr. E Phelps, Mr. Rayner, Mr. H. Neville ;Miss
V.aoff,
Belmore, Mr. Ellertan, Mr. Fitzjames, Mr.
Edmund Miss
Edith Wynne, M ss lane Ccm-
se Leclercq, ,nd Mrs. Fa
coner, supported by all the Members of the Drury-
pan
Tuy.
e new and characteristic scenery will be entirely de•
signed and painted by Mr. William Beverley.
The costumes, armour, .toba fashioned from desofi the
gns
by It. W. Keem, Esq., tiken from illustrated
period, and other author ties.
Concluding with MY HEARTS IN THE HIGHLANDS.
Mr. G. Belmore.

711HEATRE ROYAL HAYMARKET.—
Sole Lessee and Manager, Mr, Buckstone.
THIS EVENING, April 8, oUIVAMERICAN COUSIN:
Messrs. thern, Buckstone, Chippendale, Rogers, Clark,
Gordon, Braid, &c. ; Mesda.mes Angel, Lindley, Hill, Harri•i,
Snowden, &c
After which, the new Easter piece, entitled VENUS AND
ADONIS. Messrs. Compton, Wm. Parren, Coe. &c
dames Louise Keeley, Snowden, Nelly i'ower, Hill, Wright,
804-ers, &c.
To molude with MY HUSBAND'S GHOST.