The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-07 00:00:00

UNION .TALL-(THIS DAY.)

John Simmons, dressed in fashionable style, was charged
with robbing 111 r. Duck&ld, foreman o? Deptford Dockyard, of
a watch.

. The compla;n-ant said that on the preceding evening he
stopped in Wellington-street, near London-bridge, to see the
wax•.wc.rk exhibition. While he stood gazing up at the
figures he was surrounded by several well dressed men, one
of whom (the prisoner) caught him round the waist with
one hand while with the other he jerked his watch out
of his fob pocket, and then rushed away. Complainant,
however, caught hold of the tails of his coat and held him
until it policeman came up, but the watch was not re-
covered, there being several of the " swell mob!.' about at the
time, and one of the witnesses said that be distinctly saw•the
prisoner pass it to another man.
He was committed.

DESTRUCTION OF THE BRIT;SH
ARMY IN CABOOL.

We have been favoured with the following interesting letter
from the only uncaptured survivor of the Caboul army—Dr.
Brydon. It is addressed to his brother, and dated Jellalabad,
January 20 :

" Sly dear Tom,—Here I am at this place, all safe, but not
all sound, having received three wounds on the head, len. hand,
and knee. I have lost everything I had in the world ; but my
life has been saved in a most wonderful manner, and I am the
only Euro;lean who has escaped from the Cabool army
(although we hate heard of two having been taken by the
enmy, it is very doubtful if they wilt be spared). Two
natives only have reached this place, making, with myself, three
persons out of an army of 13,000.
" I got on very well till within about 50 mi'es of this, with
the exception of losing all my baggage, &c. I then lost the
horse on which I was riding. Having taken one of my ser-
vants, who was wounded, up behind me, we fell rather too far
in the rear, when he was pulled off from behind, and I fell
with him. I was instantly felled to the earth with the blow
of a large knife, which wounded me in the head. I, how-
ever, managed to avert the second blow, by receiving my
enemy's hand on the edge of my sword, by which his hand was
somewhat damaged, and he dropped his knife, and made off
as fast as he could, and I, following his good example,
managed to reach the main body, minus my horse, cap, and
shoe, which last I lest in the !now. I was then trudging along
holding fast by the tail of another officer's horse, when a native,
who was riding close by, said that he could ride no further, and
told me to take his horse, which I did without delay. Ido not
know who the man was, as it was quite dark at the time, but
the saddle must have belonged to-an Affghan. 1 now got to
the front, where I found a number of officers, who determined
to push on, as the men would obey no orders, and were halting
every minute. We travelled on slowly ad night, fired at occa-
sionally from the sides of the hills, and found ourselves at day-
break about 30 miles from this, our party consisting of only
seven officers, five European soldiers, and myself, the rest hav-
ing lost us in the dark, and gone by some other road.
"At about ten A.M. we were attacked and surrounded on
all sides by horsemen: three officers and the five Europeans
were here killed. One of the officers was Lieutenant Bird, of
the Madras army, who fell close by my side. I with the re-
maining four got clear of the horsemen, and pushed on ; three
of our party being well mounted, left the fourth and myself far
in the rear, when he, after coming on some way, said his horse
was done up, and that he would- hide until night, for which
purpose he lett me about four miles from this. He was taken
and killed.

" I proceeded slowly for a short time, when I saw a great
many people running towards me in all directions. I waited
until they got pretty close, and then pushed my horse into a
gallop and ran the gauntlet for about two miles under a shower
of large stones, sticks, and , a few shots, in which I had
my sword broken by a stone, my horse shot in the spine
close to the tail, and my body bruised all wier by the stories.
I was now attacked by a horseman, who left a party of
about six, whom I saw leading away one of our officers'
horses who had gone on ahead ; these three were killed ;
and having nothing to defend myself with, and my horse
being quite done up, he wounded me on the knee and hand,
when seeing me sto,,p down he galloped away as fast he could,
thinking; 1 suppose,•that I was looking for a pistol. I now
proceeded unmolested, and arrived here about one o'clock,
quite done up, as was also my poor horse, who lost the use of
his hind legs next day, arid died two days after without ever
getting up after his arrival. If you rec(ive this, let them
know at home that I am alive, as 1 have not been able to write
since October last, and perhaps we shall not have the road open •
when the next overland starts. Since arriving here I have
had three shirts, three pair of socks, a jariket, and a pair of
trousers given to me. A very fine stock, you will ray ; how.,
ever, it must do until I can get another outfit. Write to me
and let me know the news from home.—Your affectionate
brother, " WILLIAM BRYDON. .
_ _

" I arrived here about noon oh the 13th. Alllnr-
ther particulars you will find in the papers, so I can write no
more at preser.t, it being awkward holding my paper whilst
writing."