The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-28 00:00:00

RAILWAYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans 1378 75 .. 1380
Northern
New ditto 895 ..
Lyons and Mediterranean 907 50 .. 908 75
Geneva 375 .. 377 50
Southern 517 50 .. 518 75
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lorpbard - .. 472 60

GAETA.

The Paris correspondent of the Hominy Post
says :—Official telegraph despatches via Turin say
that the Sardinians will be able to enter Gaeta on
the Ist of January. Their siege artillery is most
successful. Nevertheless, King Francis will make
his Bavarians hold out to the last. His Majesty
yesterday went on board a Spanish vessel with
the Ambassador of Spain, in order to avoid the
perils of bombardment. How swift is the judg-
ment ! Only a few weeks since, and he ordered
the city of Palermo to be destroyed.
According to the following letter in the Paris
Frew, dated " Moli di Gaeta, Dec. 21," Francis 11.
thinks it no longer safe to spend his nights in the
bombarded town :
Since I wrote to you in my last letter, the firing
has only ceased for short intervals on either side.
Beyond a doubt the fire from the place is hotter
than our own, but we are endeavouring to show
these Neapolitan gentlemen that our gunners
know how to handle the rifled guns in the bat-
teries already mounted. Our siege works have
much advanced these three days, and approached
much nearer to the place. We have abandoned
the position of Monte-Cristo, which was a little
too far in the rear, and on that side we have
raised a battery on the heights of Costola.
From Costola the battery extends to the
left towards the Capucini, Monte-Conca, and
Monto-Portola. If you follow these positions
which I have just traeed out on the map, you can
easily ascertain the progress we have made and
how the place is already surrounded by a formid-
able line. Our work, however, does not stop there,
for the impious of the engineers are on the point of
constructing another line still more formidable,
which will soon be finished, I hope. Even if the
famous Cavalli guns, so much spoken of, should
not arrive in the course of the month, we have at
our disposal a goodly supply of rifled ordnance of j
every calibre for setting the business in hand.
The besieged, who have been already able to con-
vince themselves of the destruction these guns can
commit when they are properly aimed, have thought
it prudent to dislodge the population of Gaeta, who
inhabit the quarter of Colts Smerga, by turning
them into the dwellings in the Rue San Montano,
which is more on the south side of the town. The
King himself, believing that he is not very safe
in the rooms of his palace, has taken the prudent
resolution of passing his nights on board of the
Spanish frigate lying in the harbour.
There is again a rumour in our camp that your
squadron is decidedly on the eve of quitting the
waters of Gaeta. It has produced the most
favourable effect, for no sooner will the French
veksels have left than Admiral Persano will be
able on his side to attack the place, and thereby
hasten the solution of an affair which it must be
confessed has become rather a bore. Two days
ago the French fleet was seen suddenly to hoist its
flags half-mast high, in sign of mourning. We
were naturally lost in a thousand conjectures, but
this morning a Neapolitan officer who had been
able to quit Gaeta explained to us the reason. It
was the captain of the Redoubtable who had just
died, and of typhus fever, it was said.
I think I have already told you that the Count
de Sanfront, an aide-de-camp of Victor Emmanuel,
had left last Sunday for Messina, with the mission
of communicating the order to the Neapolitan
General Fergola, that he should surrender the
citadel.

The conditions which General Fanti has just made
to the governor of that place have been communi-
cated to me. They are as follows :-1. The citadel
of Messina, with all its stores, will be given up to
the army of his Majesty the King Victor Emmanuel,
as soon as it shall present itself. 2. The Nea-

politan troops forming the garrison of the citadel
of Messina will leave it with the honours of war,
and will be embarked in order to be conveyed to one
of the ports of the kingdom, which they will
garrison, 3. The officers, the administrative and