The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-10 00:00:00

SHIPPING—Tills Day.

LONDON, March 10.—Wind this day at noon—South.
Neat; moderate breeze, and fine weather.
SUNDERLAND, March 9.--Wind S.E.—Sailed—Queen
of the East, for Shanghai.
FALMOUTH, M arch 10.—Wind S. W.—Arrrired—li Oen,
from London for Bermuda.
PORTSMOLTH, March 9.—Wind E.—Arrived—Peven-
say, screw steamer, from London fur Bermuda.

OFF DOVER, March 10.—Arrived—Bellona, screw
steamer, from New York.
(BY MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Thursday Morning.
Anived, March 9.—Napoleon, from Gravelines.
Arrived, March 10.—Nora, steamer, tom Rotterdam.

DEAL, Thursday Morning,
Passed.—H.M.S Supply, from the Mediterranean, for
Wool wich—Justia, screw steamer, for BArbadoes—Jor.
neizza, for Cardiff—Sylph, for Port Natal —Bolina of Jersey,
for Jersey—Roselle, for Launceston, ail trout London—
Coeur do Lion, from Shield, for Caglieri—Deerfoot, from
Shields, for Constantinople--Wy-e, from Sunderland, for
Singapore—John Fenwick, screw steamer, from Palermo
—Berkby, from Calcutta, both for London.

Foreign Mail Packet List.

MAILS DUE.

- -
Australia and Mauritius, via Southampton. Mar. 20.
via Marseilles Mar. 14.
brazil and Cape Vera, by British packet. April's„
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena Mar. 30.
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton Mar. 20.
via Marseilles Mar. 14.
Falkland Islands
0• • •
Gibraltar, via Southampton Mar. 13.
India (Calcutta), aad Ceylon, via Southampton Mar. 20.
via Marseilles Mar. 14.
India (Bombay), via Southampton Mar. 13.
—. via Marseilles Mar. 22.
Portugal....
April 5.
Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton Mar. 13,
via Marseilles Mar. 14.
Newfoundland
.. Mar. 16.
Oporto and Vigo ..
U. S. and British N. America, by Brit. packet.... Mar. 10.
by U.S. packet....
b 1 1.
W.C. of Africa, Madeira, and Tey ne Canadian packet
rifte Mar. Mar.
10.
Bahamas, via New York Mar. 11,
Mexico
All parts of West Indies, including Chili, Peru,
1 Mar. 30, California. and British Columbia

A ROYAL CHRISTENING IN 1600,

The following account, written by a contempo-
rary and eye-witness of the baptism of King
Charles 1., is of some interest at the present moment,
inasmuch that, like the princely eldest born of the
present Prince and Princess of Wales, King Charles
I. was at his birth the son of the heir to the English
throne (James VI. of Scotland and I. of England),
and of a female scion of the royal family of Den-
mark. It is literally copied from a manuscript in
the Lyons-office at Edinburgh, "written by John
Blinsele, Hay Herald :-
6, Upon Wednesday, betwixt eleven and twelve hours at
even, the 19th day of November, 1600, the Queen's Majesty
was delivered within the Palace of Dunterruling of a man-
child. God of His mercy make him His servant, give him
long and prosperous days to live, both to God's glory and
to the welfare of the country. Upon Tuesday, the 23d of
December, the King's Majesty came from his chambers to
the Chapel Royal, conveyed by the Marquis of Huntly,
the Earls of Montrose, Chancellor, Cassils, Mar and
Winton ; my Lord Lyon ; Sir George Douglas of Ellen,
Knight; John Blinsele, Hay Herald; James Borthwick,
Rothsayillerald ; and Thomas Williamson, Ross Herald;
Daniel Graham, Dingwal Pursevant; William Makeson;
Bute Pursevant; and David Gardner, Ormond Purse-
vant; our coats of arms displayed, trumpets sounding
before us, conveyed his Majesty to the Chapel
Royal. And there his Majesty was placed on the east geivil
of the chapel. Aud thereafter my Lord Lyon, Master of the
Ceremonies, Heralds, Pursevants, and Trumpeters, came to
the Queen's chamber, and there was a pall of gold, silver,
and silk, very magnificent wrought (as it was spoken) by
his Majesty's late mother, of good memory, which was
sustained and borne by six knights—viz., the Knight of
Edzell and the Knight of Daddup at one end, the Knights
of Trequair and Ormiston at the other end, and in the
midst of the pall on every aids the Knight of Black Ormis-
ton, called Sir Mark Tier of Ormiston, and Sir William
Balindon of Broughton ; and within the pall the Bairn,
borne by Marquis de Rohan, a nobleman of Brittany,
who bore the Bairn in his arms from the chamber to the
chapel; and on one side of the said Marquis de Rohan his
brother, called M. de Soubize ; and on the other aide of him
the Marquis of Huntly; and behind him my Lord Living-
stone, who bare up the Bairn's royal robe of purple velvet
lined with damask. The Bairn was covered with cloth of
gold and lawn. And behind, the dames of honour, the
Marquis of Huntly's wife, the Countess of Mar, with the
wives of my Lords Treasurer, President, Secretary, with
many other dames of honour. And before the pall was
the Bairn's honours borne, viz,, My Lord President bare
the crown ducal ; my Lord Spynie bare the laver and towel;
my Lord Roxburgh bare the basin; my Lord Lyon, Master of
the Ceremonies, heralds with our coats displayed, trumpeters
sounding before us, with sundry other noblemen. We ranked
to the chapel till we came before his Majesty)• and there, on the
north side of the said chapel, the pall andtairn was placed.
The Lady Marchioness of Iluntly bare the Bairn within the
said pall all the timo of the sermon. On the east side of the
said pall was two chairs of cramoisy velvet where the two
brothers sat beneath his Majesty. On his Majesty's right
hand and on the west side ot• the pall sat these noblemen :
Tho Marquis of Bundy, Chancellor, Cassils, Mar and Win-
ton, treasurer, secretary, clerk register, advocate, and sundry
ether noblemen of the secret council. Upon the south side
of the chapel, my Lards Livingstone, Spynie, President
Roxburgh, and sundry other noblemen and servants of the
two Frenchmen who were his Majesty's gossips. The ser-
mon and baptism was made by Mr. David Lindsay, Bishop
of Ross, and minister of Leith, which was upon Romans
13th and '2d. The time of sermon being ended, Mr. David
Lindsay declared it over again in French to the two French.
men that were gossips, and thereafter he proceeded to the
baptism of the Bairn. The pall and Bairn was brought to
the pulpit, borne by the said Marquis de Rohan, and his
Majesty came in his place to the said pulpit with the said
noblemen ; and the minister baptised him, naming him
Charles; and then after a Psalm sang, and blessing said,
my Lord Lyon proclaimed his styles, and called him my
Lord Charles of Scotland, Duke of Albany, Marquis of
Ormond, Earl of Ross, Lord Ardmannogh; and thereafter
Dingwal Pursevant proclaimed his styles out of the west
window of the said chapel, crying with a loud voice--.
Largess of the most high and excellent Prince, nay Lord
Charles of Scotland, Duke of Albany, Marquis onf
Herald, did
Earl of Ross, Lord of Ardmannogh, Largesse I largesse I
trumpets sounding, the
cast out lof tAhendsatihderweamndeorwjoohnile hbulinildareelad' mark
of silver to
Majesty ranked from the
ct the t
ipeo osrh,
uotf
chapel to the chamber as he did before; The pall, Bairn,
nthineeducaknen'sonlsar;gehsiss;
and honours were borne, and the lord's dames ranked from
the chapel to the Queen's chamber, the gossip Marquis de
Rohan bore the Bairn as he did to the kirk; my Lord Lyon,
blaster of Ceremonies, heralds, Pursevants, trumpets sound:
log before us."

-----
A RASCAL PROPERLY PUNISHED.—George Arm-
strong, a private of the 30th British Regiment, who
took advantage of his leave of absence to cross to the Ame-
rican side, enlist there, receive the bounty, and then return
to his regiment boasting of his rascality, has been tried by
court martial, and sentenced to be drummed out of the ser-
vice, and afterwards imprisoned for two years—Montreal
paper,

A POLITE CHRISTIAN.—A lady, who was a strict
observer of etiquette, being unable to go to church one
Snuday, send her card.—American paper.
MARK LEMON'S " Wait for the End" forms vols.
698 and 699 of Tauchnitz's Collection of British Authors.
Lord Macaulay's "History of England" has just been pub.
lished at Prague, in Hungarian, by Zeleny.
THE EMP EROR NAPOLEON 111. AND MAXIMILIAN.

—lt is reported that the Emperor and the Archduke Maxi,
milian are greatly pleased with each other, and that all the
difficulties relating to the acceptance of the Mexican throne
have been smoothed over and arranged to the mutual satis,
faction of both potentates.
THE FLOWERY LAND PIRATES.—The grave of
the file pirates of the Flowery Land, in Newgate,
is now indicated by the few mural marks that serve to point
out the burial places of notorious criminals. The grave is
immediately on the right of that of the infamous poisoner,
Catherine Wilson ; and on the wall near it the initials
13. p. D. L. W., rudely carved in the stone, with the words
"Ship Flowery Land, Feb. 22," mark the spot whore the
mains of Bianco, Lopez, DllllllllO,
Lyons, and Watt() are
interred.

Army.)
DANISH HEAD QUARTERS, SONDERBORG,
March 1.
The re hra been a long and somewhat stormy
Bitting; of Cue Council of State at Copenhagen, which,
we are to',d, very nearly led to a Ministerial crisis.
The matter in discussion was the final dismissal of
General de Meza, and the appointment of his suc-
cessor. Do Meza, as you are aware, had from the
beginni•ag the supreme command of the Danish

army, and he gave the orders for the retreat from

the Dannewerk. From the moment the King and
his Prime Minister, Bishop Monrad, had, on account
of that backward movement, to face the indignation
of the army at Sonderborg and of the mob at Copen-
hagen, the ruin of the ill-starred commander was

resolved upon, and the wily statesman at the head
of affairs had openly pledged himself to consummate

it. De Meza was, as you may remember, recalled
from his command immediately upon the arrival of
Abe army at Sonderborg, and his post was occupied
by General Luttichau, the former Commander-in-
Chief of the Artillery. At the same juncture Kauff-
mann was. superseded by Stjernhclra at the head of
the Staff. All these, however, had been mere tem-
porary arrangements, and it was high time the
Government at Copenhagen should come to defini-
tive resolutions. A sense of justice and the consci-
ousness of the real nature of the transactions at
Schleswig enlisted, it would seem, an exalted per-
sonage in the interests of the disgraced general, and
prompted him stanchly and generously to plead his
cause. Bat the Prime Minister was inexorably bent
on the lull nolation of his scapegoat, and made the
removal of De Meza a Cabinet question. He carried
his point as a matter of course, and the acknowledged
author of the retreat from the Dannewerk disappears
altogether from the scene of his exploits at the

bead of the Danish army. At the same time Gen.
Luttichan is also relieved from the supreme command
which he only held in a provisional capacity, and
resumes his former place at the head of the Artil•

Lary. Our new General-in-Chief is Gerlach, who

had hitherto only the command of the first division ;

Stjernholm retains his position as permanent Chief
of the Staff,pand his predecessor, Kanffmann, will,

it is said, have the commend of a brigade. The only
victim in the ease is De Men, and it is observable
that, as the first moment of excitement and per-
plexity choice was made of Luttichau because he
was the only man in the Council of War who had
stoutly voted against the retreat from the Danne-
werk, so now that men's minds are in a el lm er
mood, and that retreat begins to be looked upon as
matter of stern necessity, the man to be put forward
is Gerlach, simply because he chanced to be absent
from the Council, and had therefore no occasion to
give any opinion on that sad but inevitable measure.

Nothing is seen or heard of the Prussians, and it is
only by a strong effort that we can bring ourselves

to remember that we are here in a state of war and
siege. The conduct of the enemy appears to my
Danish friends utterly inexplicable. The German
and other papers are all full of the secondary part

they were made to play at the taking of the Dan- ne-
werk by some portentous achievement against the
position of Dybbol. The Austrians who reaped at

Bustrup, Oversoe, and else where such laurels as
were to be obtained in this ignoble campaign of four
against one, were induced to fall back on the second
line, and leave the past of honour to their Prussian
allies. The bastions on the heights at Dybbol were,
as those same papers asserted, to be stormed at the
first onset, and the very island of Aistn could not
be safe against the enterprising ingenuity of Prince
Frederick Charles, who could as readily throw a
bridge over the Sound in this vicinity as he did
over the Schlei, between Arnis and Coppein.
Somehow, however, events have not as yet
justified these great vaunts. The Prussians came,
saw, but did not conquer. The petty skirmishing
at outposts achieved but little towards carrying the
Dybbol forts at the point of the bayonet. We were

then given to understand that the Prussians were
preparing themselves. Their heevy artillery had
not arrived ; it was for their pontoons they were
waiting. A terrificcannonade was to be the prelude
of their selvage onslaught. Nothing was to begin till
all could bo achieved. The storming of the bastions,
the passage of the Sound, the annihilation of the
Danes, were to be accomplished at one blow. All
measures were taken for a full, immediate, and de-
eieive success. The 22d of last month, then the 26th,
were the days appointed for the mighty deed. But
all thise days passed, the month itself came to an
end, and the inaction of the Prussians became daily
more absolute and complete.
" What is the meaning of all this ?'' my Danish
friends ask. "Has Prussia resolved upon wearing
us out with ennui, and, without offering or accept.
ing an armistice, does she shrink from a conflict
which would have no political results ? Is this
merely a show and mockery of war, and must the
lives that have been and are being sacrificed be
looked upon as mere counters in the deep game that
politicians are playing behind the soldiers' back ?
If the Prussians were so bent upon achieving the
occupation of Schleswig, if it seemed to them that
nothing was actually done until Dybbol and Alsen
were reduced, why do they not come on ? Their own
turn has come; their Austrian allies have made
room for them. The best chances are offered them
for retrieving'the past. They are face to face with
us—double and treble our number, strong in the
advantages of all the most formidable contrivances
of modern artillery. How is it that they are afraid
to come on ?
The word "afraid," as applied to the armies of
that nation whose destinies the Great Elector and
Frederick 11. grounded on the excellence of their
military organisation, seems really too absurd. It
has had but rare chances of distinguishing itself
since 1815. Its first trial at Missunde was not very
encouraging—nay, some people describe that en-
counter as a positive Prussian defeat. It takes time
to bring into action raw regiments, whose officers
have seen as little the as their men. lam not by
any means disposed to believe all I hear ; but some
of the Danes, who were far advanced at the outposts
on the 22d (the day on which the Prussians made a
forward movement on the village of Dybbol, and
when they had four infantry brigades, with cavalry
and artillery, against two Danish regiments), assure
me they could see on the other side of the lines
Prussian officers urging their men on with the flat
of their swords, that they could hear them calling
their men " craven hounds" and all sorts of igno-
minious names, but without inspiring them with
sufficient pluck to bring them to face the heavy
cannon that began to open fire upon them from the
bastions at Dybbol bill.
I repeat it is ridiculous to suppose that the long-
meditated and often announced attack of the Prus-
-Bians should be put off day after day simply from
disinclination of the soldiers of that nation to come
to the scratch. But that such is the interpretation
the Danes begin to feel inclined to put on the sluggish
movements of their adversaries is a fact I can
vougela
and it is always in the power of the Prussians to
give the lie to such disparaging surmises by making
goad their boasts by brave deeds.
It does not seem conceivable that if th© Prussians
at any time intended to try their strength
againsta
Dybbol they should deem it a good andwise
counsel to waste so much precious time, allowing
the Danes full leisure to complete thosa *works of
fortification which on our first arrival, three or
four weeks ego, were yet in so imperfect a state.
What could, early in February, be done by 40,000
men, may soon be, in March, beyond the achieve-
ment of thrice the number. The whole line is
now ready ; and the same alacrity has been ex-
hibited by the Danes in the erection of batteries
along the Sound on the Alien side, from the church
and castle of Sonderborg down to Kim, and Ron-
have, and as far as tile extreme point of Arnkiel
sore. For any remissness that the Brines may have
been guilty of at the outset of the war, the still
greater slowness and most unaccountable inertia of
their adversaries make ample amends. There seems
to be a resolution on the part of the Prussians that,
if there is to be a struggle at all, it sbould be put
off until all the defensive contrivances of the Danes
may contribute to render it in an extreme degree
fierce and desperate.

MARCH 1, Evening.
I -ti7e loc,if.'n to day on board the Rolf Krake.

She is a powerful iron-clad with two turrets or
cupolas, armed each of them with two 64-pounders.
Her length is 120 feet, and she is at least 34 feet
broad. Her engine is nominally of 250-horse power,
but can bear a far greater pressure of steam. She
can run nine knots an hour in smooth wo ter, but
her officers have no high opinion of her as a sea-
boat. Indeed, they think that the attempt to com-
bine sailing powers with the efficiency of a monitor
has been crowned with but indifferent success. In
heavy weather in the Baltic or the German Ocean
she would have no great chance. On the other hand,
she is too deep in the water to be of great use in
shallow inland seas. She could go safely through
the Egernsund, but could not venture any distance
into the Nybol Nor. She lies now in the Sound,
near the opening of the Vemmingburd, whence she
can wander at her pleasure to any part of that
small but deep bay. She has her steam always up,
and is ready for a start at 20 minutes' notice. Her
mission at the present moment is to watch the
movements of the Prussians in the Broager Penin-
sula, and to act OR their right flank in the event of
their attack on the Dybbol position. She suffered
more damage in her spirited attack on the pontoon
bridge at Egernsund, on Thursday fortnight, than
the first reports had led us to believe. She has
now been thoroughly repaired, however, and we
witnessed the evolutions of her turrets and guns,
which were performed with great speed and pre-
cision. All the officers and most of the men are
familiar with the English language, and we were
entertained on board with as great a cordiality as
if we had been countrymen.
Experiments are being made here in the evening
with electric light, with a view to apply it to war-
like purposes, to watch the enemy's movements in
the night, and to enable the artillery of the forts to
fire in the darkest weather. With what practical
results such contrivances may be attended we shall
learn in time. In the meanwhile the exhibition
affords some entertainment to the people here, who
are somewhat at a loss how to get rid of the long
evenings, notwithstanding the performances of a
dramatic company with ballets, which has followed
us all the way from Schleswig.

We received to-day telegraphic news of a cavalry
skirmish near Bekke, in Jutland, in which a
squadron of Danish Dragoons charged upon two
squadrons of German Hussars, and captured 30 of
them ; seven of the captives are wounded ; two of
the latter officers, a lieutenant and an army surgeon,
The Danes on their side lost three prisoners.

:From the Times Special Correspondent toith ll6c Allied
Armies.)

KOLDING, JUTLAND, March 5.

There was nothing at all going on at Hadersleben
yesterday, so I drove down in the direction of the
Jutland frontier, put up at a farmhouse just on the
edge of Schleswig, a few miles westward from
Kolding (where the number of troops assembled
renders it almost impossible for travellers to find
quarters), and came on here at daybreak this morn-
ing. This small town of barely 4,000 inhabitants
is situated exactly on the frontier. As you begin
the descent of a little hill immediately preceding it,
and on the slope of which its first houses are situ-
ated, you come to a low iron post marking the
boundary. From the high ground to the right of
the road the best view of the place is obtained.
It stands at the mouth of a small river, the Kong's
Aaa (King's river), which there enters an inlet of
the sea. Looking eastward the island of Funen is
plainly visible to the naked eye. On a small tcngue
of land by the harbour, stretching in that direction,
the Prussians have constructed a covered shelter
for riflemen, made of beams and of iron rails, bor-
rowed (not much to the contentment of the con-
tractors) from the line of Danish railway here in
course of construction. From this place is com-
manded the high road to Fredericie, which for a
short distance runs along the shore before diverging
from it in a north-easterly direction. On another
road, which proceeds due north from Kolding, is
situated the town of Veile, about 14 English miles
distant, and the people here tell me that the Prus-
sians have been as far as Brandrup, about two miles
on that road, but that they did not remain there.
At the present time there is a barricade and a
guard at the exit from the town in that direction,
and the advanced picket is but a short way beyond.
So that at this point the allied army has gone but
a very small distance over the frontier; but from
Kolding the boundary line runs away at first nearly
duo south, and then south-west, and then again
north-west, forming en enclave or projection of Jut-
land into Sehlesw•i;, where the Prussians also are,
at the villages of Seest and Hjarup, and possibly in
other insignificant places. Looking down upon
Kolding from the small hill already mentioned, im-
mediately south of the town, the most conspicuous
objects rising from the confused mass of dingy red
houses are the castle and the Royal stables. The
latter area low red building forming three sides of
a large square, and a breeding stud was kept there,
which was removed on the approach of war. The
castle is a mere wreck—a sort of stone skeleton, in
the tottering fabric of which the daylight passes
through countless gaps and crevices. At its western
end is a lofty square tower, the ascent of which is
now forbidden as dangerous, and from the summit
of which, as Kolding lies in a narrow valley, NJ
very extensive view could be obtained, except in the
direction of Funen. The ruin of the castle, once a
Royal residence, dates from its conti igration, early
in the present century. Some of the people in this
neighbourhood say that it was burnt by the
Spaniards of the Marquis de la Romagna, but
I have no books here to refer to en that or any
other subject, and I do not remember whether Ro-
magna's troops came to this part of Jutland. Their
embarcation on board of British ships to return to
Spain occurred, if I rightly recollect, from the island
of Zealand. However that may be, it is certain
that they left a number of horses behind them in
Denmark, which were crossed with Dartie, horses,
and of whose breed traces are not unfrequently to
be detected in those one sees about here.

The farmhouse at which I passed last night, at
Fovslel, in the frontier parish of Odis, is an excel-
lent specimen of the best class of establishments of
that kind in Schleswig. Everything about it is sub-
stantial, from the hospitable proprietor, of Hercu-
lean build, riding 17 stone, and a model of rude
health and muscular development, down to the moun-
tain of roast beef under which his supper table
groaned. Capacious and well-built stables con-
tained 100 cows and 20 horses ; the milk, abundant
even at this season, stood in tubs several feet in
diameter ; the churns were big enough to make a
tub of butter at a time. The ducks and fowls, geese,
turkeys, pigeons, and other feathered bipeds,
swarmed to prodigious extent, but the cocks were
downcast, for some of the Austrian sharpshooters
had plucked the curling black feathers from their
tails to decorate their picturesque hats. Since then
Hussars had been there, and lately 11 officers found
ample accommodation and good cheer in the great
solid farmhouse, the interior of which afforded not
only plenty of room for numerous guests, but luxu-
ries and refinements such as could hardly have been
expected in this remote northern nook. Our host,
born within a few miles of his present abode,had never
been out of his country, never south of the Elbel he
told us, but he spoke excellent German, and preferred
to speak it, although Danish was equally familiar to
him. He was a thorough Augustenb'arger, and had
13"tation of 1,600 Schles-
been one of the monster de
wigers that lately went down to Kiel to greet Prince
Frederick. He could not deny, however, that,
although
independent Sehleswig•Holstein, com-
Plet:4lY severed from Denmark, was what he and
many others most ardently desired, Schleswig might
be
ei
contented by a personal union with the kingdom.
Sschleswig, wife, who, although also a native o, North
less terangtiostPalksee:lttoralitioannis; I suspect the North
Schleswigers gene hb,usst•oeld hear. of nothing.
-rallY would be satisfied with the
personal union—those that
desire, on the contra; is to say, who do not
y, arnalganaation. with Dm-
mark. So far as I have -
observing, I am greatlysu
exists in North Schleswig, espe-
ciallyyet had opportunity of
anti-Danish feeling to sae how much
among the farmers. The
vid
resident forsometime past in the country,
of foreigners
ountry
veracity and impartiality
cthemreer is not
and whose
not the slightest
reason to suspect, is m
valuable in this
respect than my personal observat'o
e four days that have now
passed sine; during the
wards from Flensburg. From such came north-
persons rec.ive

strong assurances that the desire to be detached
from Denmark, at least as regards the administra-
tion of the country, exists to a very great extent
quite up to the frontier, even among many who,
owing to the system of education enforced, speak
only Danish. There can be but one cause for this,
and that is a cause which I everywhere hear de-
nounced—the vexatious and oppressive proceedings
of the Danish functionaries sent here from other
parts of Denmark. We have been accustomed to
believe that, just as South Schleswig is notoriously
German in its sympathies and aspirations, the
northern part of the duchy is thoroughly Danish.
My stay here has been as yet fur too short for me to
become convinced of the contrary, but I must say
that all I have as yet seen tends greatly to shake
my previous belief.

There have been some small skirmishes lately on
the frontier, one of them between Prussian Hussars
and Danish Dragoons. As the affair was related to
me yesterday, before leaving headquarters, 30
troopers of the Bth Hussars and an officer fell in with
a small Danish patrol in Jutland, near the frontier,
seven miles to the westward of this place, made five
or six prisoners, and sent them to the rear. They
then imprudently continued to advance, were at-
tacked by a very superior force of Dines, and were
all killed, wounded, or made prisoners. The officer
was wounded and taken. The affair is one of those
which frequently occur between the lines of hostile
armies, and of course is very unimportant; but the
Prussians are vexed at it because this is the first of
their officers who has been captured in this war.

The Prussian Guards are the troops now in Jut-
land—infantry, cavalry, and artillery. There may
also be some infantry of the line, although I have
not seen any ; but there have been various move-
ments of troops hereabouts during the last day or
two. I am assured on good authority that the whole
number of Prussian troops in Schleswig and Lifland
is about 40,000 men. In Holstein there is a brigade,
probably about 6,0430 more. Plenty more could
quickly be brought up if required, but it is unlikely
that there will be any necessity for them. The Aus-
trians are probably nearly 25,000. There have
lately been most exaggerated reports current in Ber-
lin with respect to the strength of the allied forces,
and I have heard them rated as high as 100,000 or
120,000 men. This is manifestly erroneous.
Equally unfounded reports have been circulated
with respect to the health of the army. I have
excellent reason for believing that the number of
sick little exceeds three per cent., and the majority
of the case are not serious maladies. I met a lot of
the Guards on the road this morning moving south,
and I have just heard they were going to a distri-
bution of medals to a few men who have had oppor-
tunities of personally distinguishing themselves
during the present war. I know that some such
ceremony was in contemplation, but up to yesterday
afternoon the day was not fixed : so it must have
been suddenly decided that the ceremony should
take place this morning.