78 EFFECTS OF THE EXPLOSION. 



powder. In the entire fort no space of any extent 

 remained closed. Either the atmospheric pressure had 

 pushed in the doors or walls, or where they resisted 

 the ensuing vacuum had burst them asunder. The 

 window-panes even in the village of Laboe and in 

 Holtenau were broken. The differential pressure must 

 in the interior of the fort have amounted to at least 

 an atmosphere, otherwise it could not have produced 

 such effect at so great a distance. 



When I returned to the place where I had left 

 my troop I found it deserted, and feared that the people 

 in their first terror had dispersed and crept away. 

 I soon however saw to my delight that they had all 

 betaken themselves to their assigned places. They had 

 imagined that a Danish bomb had struck and the 

 attack had begun. 



The Danish ships had however determined to 

 proceed no further, returned to the outer roads, and 

 soon abandoned these also with the exception of the 

 blockade-ship. In the Copenhagen newspapers it was 

 shortly afterwards reported that one of the submarine 

 mines, with which the harbour of Kiel was paved, 

 had accidentally exploded and destroyed the fort. 

 Indeed the view from the ships must have been rather 

 astonishing. The red tiles of all the buildings of the 

 fort protruded over the low ramparts, and rendered 

 them particularly conspicuous. Immediately after the 

 explosion however all the tiles had fallen down, and 

 no houses were any longer visible. 



That the Danes had acquired considerable respect 



