The scheme may be an excellent one, the
directors may be all " good City men," and yet
the shareholders may take fright, and themselves
ruin their own prospects. For, when they no
longer see the scheme in which they have taken
shares, quoted at a premium—a premium which
their own common sense should tell them must
be, more or less, a sham—they at once rush to
sell their shares, and thus themselves depreciate
their own property. If the public would
exercise judgment before they buy shares, and
patience after their purchases are made, they
would do much better than by taking alarm at
the first depreciation that happens to the stock
in which they have invested. So doing, they
help, as it were, to burn down their own property,
and in effecting their own ruin.

       CAPTAIN BLUENOSE.

"GREAT news, glorious news!  Victory!  The
Danes are falling back!  Flensburg has been
taken. Flensburg has hoisted the German colours.
Hoch liebe Deutschland!"  bawled a
hundred voices at once, and the bells in the
church tower rang out their merriest peal, while
the little village was decked with ribands and
boughs and flowers, as gaily as for a fair. There
were crowds in the straggling street; and, from
the open windows of most of the houses, hung
out the gaudy German flag, the tricolor of the
Fatherland. Young and old wore cockades
and rosettes of the national colours, and had
joyous faces and busy tongues. For the village
of Steerup, on the direct road from the strong
fortress of Flensburg to the little harbour of
Kappel, is a village in which the Germans out-
number the Danes in a proportion of at least
three to one.

"May Nip and Nock throttle the noisy swine!"
growled the old man who walked by my side,
and who, like myself, found his progress so
much impeded by the gesticulating groups in
front of every beer-house and tavern, that his
usual swinging stride was reduced to a slow step.
"Let us turn up this lane to the left, Mr.
Harry, and get clear of the traitorous crew.
This is no place for a Dane.  If I had but a
couple of guns charged with grape—— "

"Halloa, Captain Bluenose! you seem out of
sorts!  Learn to change with the times, old
sailor; cast your Danish skin, as the snakes
do in summer, and come forth in sprucer guise
as a true patriot and a Schleswiger.  Here is a
pot of the best beer Rostock ever brewed, in
which to drink the freedom of Schleswig-Holstein,"
broke in a half-tipsy German, advancing
towards my guide, and holding out a tankard
invitingly, while his companions set up a jeering
laugh; for they knew the old " skipper's"
Danish sentiments too well to doubt the
reception which such a proffer would meet with from
him. Indeed, a scuffle seemed more than
probable, when a sudden shout of "Here they
are: here they come!" and a rush on the part
of the throng to some safe place—such as the
gateways of yards, or the mouths of lanes and
alleys cut short the threatened quarrel, and my
curiosity kept me in the village street, while the
old man, muttering curses on the mutineers,
remained at my side.  We heard the roll of
drums and the heavy tramp of marching men,
and strained our eyes towards the Flensburg
road, whence a cloud of dust began slowly
to whirl along before the light summer breeze.
What we were about to see was no doubtful
spectacle.  The Danish troops, beaten back at
all points by the weight of superior numbers,
were retreating towards the islands, and a
column of infantry was to pass through Steerup;
the artillery, cavalry, and baggage, with the
bulk of the army, being sent along the broader
causeway that traverses Hollebul.  The Prussians
and the insurrectionary army of Schleswig-Holsteiners
had already occupied the principal towns
of the duchy, and the Isle of Alsen was spoken of
as the probable refuge of the overmatched Danes.

On they came, marching regularly enough,
and preserving a martial aspect; but, for all that,
the sight was a melancholy one.  There was a
gloomy expression on the faces of the beaten
soldiers, but it varied much.  Some looked sullenly
downwards, as if unwilling to catch the
eye of any spectator of their disaster, others
stared defiantly at the unsympathising faces of
the bystanders, and a few preserved a bright
bold look, as of men who had done their best,
and who had only succumbed to odds that no
courage could cope with.  Many were wounded,
having a bloody handkerchief tied around their
brows, or wearing an arm in a sling, and some
were footsore, or lamed by slight gun-shot
hurts, and had to limp painfully to keep up with
the rest.  The drums beat, and the colours
fluttered; but there was a funereal sadness
about the pageant; and, by the dark looks of
the Danes, I could see that they knew they were
passing through a crowd of ill-wishers.

Still, if no cheer, no friendly word, greeted
the retiring troops, it is equally certain that no
actual insult was offered to them.  Not a
villager spoke above breath.  Indeed, the men kept
back, though the women pressed forward as if to
show the breast-knots and fluttering streamers of
the German colours, and the Schleswig-Holstein
rosettes, that they wore.  The bells in the church
tower had ceased their clangour; but, of course,
the flags still flaunted from roof, and spire, and
casement, and wherever the Danes cast their eyes
they were met by signs of mute hostility.  The
discipline of the troops, and the temper of their
chiefs, were such as surprised me.  Without a
threat, or a menacing gesture, they pushed
steadily on; though once I saw a tall officer,
whose arm was in a sling and bandaged, look
up at the gaudy banner, red, black, and gold,
that flapped on the church tower, and clutch
his drawn sword the tighter with his uninjured
hand, as he bent his head and strode on.  And,
when the Danish rear-guard was passing the last
houses of Steerup, the bells struck up the joy-
peal again, while the people raised an insulting
shout of: