of Brandenburg, perceiving Sweden to be in difficulties, joined the
league against her and compelled Charles to accept the proffered
mediation of Cromwell and Mazarin. The negotiations foundered, however,
upon the refusal of Sweden to refer the points in dispute to a general
peace-congress, and Charles was still further encouraged by the capture
of Fredriksodde (Oct. 23-24), whereupon he began to make preparations
for conveying his troops over to Funen in transport vessels. But soon
another and cheaper expedient presented itself. In the middle of
December 1657 began the great frost which was to be so fatal to Denmark.
In a few weeks the cold had grown so intense that even the freezing of
an arm of the sea with so rapid a current as the Little Belt became a
conceivable possibility; and henceforth meteorological observations
formed an essential part of the strategy of the Swedes. On the 28th of
January 1658, Charles X. arrived at Haderslev (Hadersleben) in South
Jutland, when it was estimated that in a couple of days the ice of the
Little Belt would be firm enough to bear even the passage of a
mail-clad host. The cold during the night of the 29th of January was
most severe; and early in the morning of the 30th the Swedish king gave
the order to start, the horsemen dismounting where the ice was weakest,
and cautiously leading their horses as far apart as possible, when they
swung into their saddles again, closed their ranks and made a dash for
the shore. The Danish troops lining the opposite coast were quickly
overpowered, and the whole of Funen was won with the loss of only two
companies of cavalry, which disappeared under the ice while fighting
with the Danish left wing. Pursuing his irresistible march, Charles X.,
with his eyes fixed steadily on Copenhagen, resolved to cross the frozen
Great Belt also. After some hesitation, he accepted the advice of his
chief engineer officer Eric Dahlberg, who acted as pioneer throughout
and chose the more circuitous route from Svendborg, by the islands of
Langeland, Laaland and Falster, in preference to the direct route from
Nyborg to Korsor, which would have been across a broad, almost
uninterrupted expanse of ice. Yet this second adventure was not embarked
upon without much anxious consideration. A council of war, which met at
two o'clock in the morning to consider the practicability of Dahlberg's
proposal, at once dismissed it as criminally hazardous. Even the king
wavered for an