Not having met with the following account in any English newspaper, of a
phenomenon said to have been witnessed quite recently in Germany, I beg to
send you a translation from the _Allgemeine Zeitung_ (generally quoted in
England by the name of the _Augsburgh Gazette_) of February 13, detailing,
in a communication from Westphalia, the particulars of a phenomenon, new,
perhaps, to your pages, but by no means new to the world.
"WESTPHALIA.--If the east has its _Fata Morgana_, we, in Westphalia,
have also quite peculiar natural phenomena, which, hitherto, it has
been as impossible to explain satisfactorily, as to deny. A rare and
striking appearance of this description forms now the subject of
universal talk and comment in our province. On the 22nd of last month a
surprising prodigy of nature was seen by many persons at Büderich, a
village between Unna and Werl. Shortly before sunset, an army, of
boundless extent, and consisting of infantry, cavalry, and an enormous
number of waggons, was observed to proceed across the country in
marching order. So distinctly seen were all these appearances, that
even the flashing of the firelocks, and the colour of the cavalry
uniform, which was white, could be distinguished. This whole array
advanced in the direction of the wood of Schafhauser, and as the
infantry entered the thicket, and the cavalry drew near, they were hid
all at once, with the trees, in a thick smoke. Two houses, also, in
flames, were seen with the same distinctness. At sunset the whole
phenomenon vanished. As respects the fact, government has taken the
evidence of fifty eye witnesses, who have deposed to a universal
agreement respecting this most remarkable appearance. Individuals are
not wanting who affirm that similar phenomena were observed in former
times in this region. As the fact is so well attested as to place the
phenomenon beyond the possibility of successful disproof, people have
not been slow in giving a meaning to it, and in referring it to the
great battle of the nations at Birkenbaum, to which the old legend,
particularly since 1848, again points."