* Cologne, November 2. We still have no newspapers and letters from Vienna.
No. 133, November 3, 1848.
Neue Rheinische Zeitung.

The rumours spread by the wine salesmen of the “Breslauer Zeitung” and the diplomatic commis voyageurs of the “Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger” have so far been utterly unconfirmed. That Vienna is in the midst of fighting is beyond doubt. That the Croats and other friends of “constitutional freedom” have so far, despite the great Jellachich—whose heroism, like that of the brave Sipahsalar, is so renowned that “at the flash of his sabre the startled moon hides itself in the clouds”—gained no decisive advantage whatsoever seems to follow already from the fact that the Prussian ministry has not published any thundering dispatches. Vienna is sealed off, but not for the Berlin ministry, which receives reports “from the environs of Vienna”.

The worthy “Kölnische Zeitung” has been supplying its readers continuously since October 6 with extra supplements set in large type, each one of which gives the lie to the other. Today it finds itself placed in the “sad” necessity of confirming its “yesterday’s most sad communications”, even according to the “Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger”, which, together with the “Breslauer Zeitung”, naturally passes for Gospel with our neighbour. Our readers will find below the contradictory and groundless rumours taken from the “Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger”, the “Constitutionelles Blatt aus Böhmen”, the “Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung” and Mährische Blätter. For a critique of the “latest news” so earnestly adopted in sentiment by the “Kölnische Zeitung”, and of this earnest sentiment itself, let the following suffice for the time being:

Extra supplement of the Kölnische Zeitung of November 2:
(Set in large type.) “In the night of the 29th only isolated firing was to be heard; during the same the Belvedere and the whole of Jägerzeil and Leopoldstadt were occupied by the imperial troops, seemingly without great resistance”, etc. etc.
This is written from the environs of Vienna on the 29th, at half past two in the afternoon.
On the other hand, a traveller who left Floridsdorf at 8 in the evening on the 28th writes: “The military is in possession of the Prater, likewise the Schmelz Cemetery, whereas Leopoldstadt is still in the hands of the Viennese, and the imperial forces have not gained a single foot of ground in the suburbs.”
The first piece of news is brought by the Berliner Staats-Anzeiger, the latter by the Allgemeine Oder-Zeitung. The Kölnische Zeitung accompanies the latter with the obligatory question marks. Meanwhile, both reports would be explicable if there had been an attack on the said suburbs during the night of the 28th to the 29th.

Let us, however, read the further items from Dumont’s spinning room:
Breslau, October 30, 10 p.m. (Breslauer Zeitung.) In 2 suburbs of Vienna the fire is said to have gained so much ground that on the evening of the 28th one could read in the open air at Floridsdorf by the glow of the sea of flame.
(If this Münchhausiade were true, this splendid illumination, in accordance with the geographical position of Floridsdorf, could only have come from Leopoldstadt.)
Further, Breslau of October 30 (Correspondence.)
In Floridsdorf one could distinctly read the evening before last (i.e. on the 28th), so bright was the fire of the suburbs of Vienna.
(One could do the same that evening in Cologne on the Rhine.)
If all these reports rest on truth, then on the 29th the troops were in that part of the suburb which had still been burning so merrily the night before, which, besides, cannot surprise one if one reads, in the same column of our classic extra supplement, from the same Breslauer Zeitung, the admirable communication:
“The fire, which is said to have been extraordinarily intense on the evening of the 28th, was almost extinguished on the evening of the 29th.”

Of the other tall stories which the correspondents “from the environs of Vienna” — that is, from the imperial camp — try to palm off on the Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger, or rather that paper on its readers, we give only the following as one of the more piquant:
“On the Landstrasse, the Jägers, so it was said, had taken 30 barricades in 9 hours.”
According to Adam Riese, that makes 6 minutes per barricade, thus even swifter than in Cologne on the Rhine on the morning of September 26. If one additionally takes into account the length of the Landstrasse, there would be one barricade for every 20 paces, which casts a new and gratifying light on the strategy of the Viennese defence.

We now let the “latest news” follow. Our readers know what credence it deserves.