The front of Sebastopol, between English, French, and Russians, looked

like a huge graveyard, covered with freshly-made mounds of dark earth in

all directions. Every week one heard some such gossip as this--"The

Russians have thrown up another battery over Inkerman." "Yes, the French

are busy making another new battery in front of the redoubt." "Our fire

will most positively open about the end of next week." We were overdoing

our "positively last nights."

On the 8th a small work, armed with three heavy guns, which had been

constructed very quietly, to open on the two steamers near Inkerman,

under the orders of Captain Strange, began its practice early in the

morning, at about 1700 yards, and drove them both away after about sixty

rounds, but did not sink, or, as far as we knew, seriously disable them.

Every material for carrying on a siege--guns, carriages, platforms,

powder, shot, shell, gabions, fascines, scaling-ladders--we had in

abundance. The artillery force was highly efficient, notwithstanding the

large proportion of young gunners. Our engineers, if not quite so

numerous as they ought to have been, were active and energetic; and our

army must have consisted of nearly 20,000 bayonets, owing to the great

number of men discharged from the hospitals, and returned fit for duty,

and to the draughts which had been received. With the exception of the

Guards, who were encamped near Balaklava, reduced to the strength of a

company, nearly every brigade in the army could muster many more men

than they could a month before.

Of the Guardsmen sent to Scutari not more than sixty or seventy were in

such a state of convalescence as to permit them to join their regiments.

The men in Balaklava fared better, and the weather effected a marked

improvement in the health of the men in the field hospitals.

As for Jack, he was as happy as he would allow himself to be, and as

healthy, barring a little touch of scurvy now and then, as he could

wish; but it must be remembered that he had no advanced trenches, no

harassing incessant labour to enfeeble him, and that he had been most

successful in his adaptation of stray horseflesh to camp purposes, in

addition to which he had a peculiar commissariat, and the supplies of

the fleet to rely upon. It is a little out of place, perhaps, to tell a

story here about the extraordinary notions Jack had imbibed concerning

the ownership of chattels and the distinction between _meum_ and _tuum_,

but I may not have a better chance. A mild young officer went up one day

to the sailors' camp, which he heard was a very good place to purchase a

horse, and on his arrival picked out a likely man, who was gravely

chewing the cud of meditation and tobacco beside the suspension bridge,

formed of staves of casks, which leads across a ravine to their

quarters. "Can you tell me where I can get a good horse to buy, my man!"

"Well, sir, you see as how our horse parties ain't come in yet, and we

don't know what we may have this evening. If your honour could wait."

"Then you haven't got anything to sell now?"

"Ah! how I does wish your honour had a comed up yesterday. We had five

regular good 'uns--harabs some on 'em was, but they was all bought up by

a specklator from Ballyklava."

"So they're all gone?"

"All, that lot your honour. But," with his face brightening up suddenly,

"if you should happen to want a sporting out-and-out dromeydairy, I've

got one as I can let you have cheap." As he spoke, Jack pointed in great

triumph to the melancholy-looking quadruped, which he had "moored stem

and stern," as he expressed it, and was much disappointed when he found

there was no chance of a sale.

From hunger, unwholesome food, and comparative nakedness, the camp was a

sea of abundance, filled with sheep and sheepskins, wooden huts, furs,

comforters, mufflers, flannel shirts, tracts, soups, preserved meats,

potted game, and spirits. Nay, it was even true that a store of Dalby's

Carminative, of respirators, and of jujubes, had been sent out to the

troops. The two former articles were issued under the sanction of Dr.

Hall, who gave instructions that the doctors should report on the

effects. Where the jujubes came from I know not; but had things gone on

at this rate, we might soon have heard complaints that our Grenadiers

had been left for several days without their Godfrey's Cordial and

Soothing Syrup, and that the Dragoons had been shamefully ill supplied

with Daffy's Elixir.

[Sidenote: RENEWED VIGOUR OF THE RUSSIANS.]

"Hit high--hit low--there is no pleasing him;" but really, the fact is,

that the army was overdone with Berlin wool and flannel, and was

ill-provided with leather. The men wanted good boots and waterproofs,

for there was a rainy season. Medicine was not deficient, and there was

an unfortunately large demand for the remedies against the ravages of

low fever. Mutton and beef were so abundant, that the men got fresh meat

about three times a-week. Some of the mutton, &c., brought to the Crimea

ready killed, was excellent. Potatoes, cabbages, and carrots, were

served out pretty frequently as the cargoes arrived, and the patients in

hospital were seldom or never left short of vegetables. Admiral Boxer

was most anxious to clear the harbour, and exerted himself to reduce the

number of "adventurers" ships, and applied himself with success to the

improvement of the wharfage and of the roads to the north side of the

harbour. The dreamers had awakened, and after a yawn, a stretch, a gape

of surprise to find that what they had been sleeping over was not a

horrid nightmare, set to work with a will to clear away the traces of

their sloth. But while all this improvement was taking place, the enemy

were gathering strength. The Russians, on the night of the 11th,

developed their works on the hill in front of the Malakoff, called the

Mamelon Vert, under cover of their rapidly-increasing works at Mount

Sapoune, called by the French "les ouvrages blancs." On the 12th, Omar

Pasha arrived from Eupatoria, and a council of war was held, at which it

was decided that 20,000 Turks should be at once landed from the latter

place to co-operate in the attack on the city. The French stated they

were ready to begin their fire on the 13th, but that Lord Raglan

informed General Canrobert he was not prepared. Our right attack was

connected by a trench with the Inkerman attack.

On the 13th General Simpson, chief of the staff, arrived; and Lord

Raglan rode into Balaklava, and saw Sir John M'Neill and Colonel

Tulloch, the commissioners sent out by Lord Panmure to inquire into the

condition of the army.

On the 14th there was an affair with the Russians which was not so

fortunate for our allies as might be desired. The Russians advanced some

riflemen in front of the French on the right of our Second Division,

which caused considerable annoyance. A demi-brigade went down and drove

the Russians out. All the batteries opened at once with a tremendous

crash, and for half an hour there was a furious cannonade directed

against the darkness. In the midst of this fire a strong body of

Russians advanced on the French, and obliged them to retire. Assistance

was sent down, the French drove the Russians back; but lost sixty-five

men, killed and wounded.

CHAPTER II.

Spring Weather--Abundance of Provisions--Fourth Division Races--A

Melancholy Accident--Struggles for the Rifle-pits--Reinforcements

enter Sebastopol--Departure of Sir John Burgoyne--A Curious

Fight--A Hard Struggle--More Contests for the Rifle-pits--Killed

and Wounded.

About the middle of March we were blessed with all the genial influences

of a glorious spring. Vegetation struggled for existence beneath the

tramp of armed men and the hoof of the war horse, and faint patches of

green herbage dotted the brown expanse in which the allied camps had

rested so long. The few fruit-trees which had been left standing near

Balaklava were in blossom. The stumps on the hill sides were throwing

out green shoots as outlets for the welling sap; the sun shone brightly

and warmly from blue skies streaked with clouds, which were borne

rapidly along by the breeze that never ceased to blow from the high

lands. Of course, the beneficial effects of this permanent fine weather

on the health and spirits of the army were very great, and became more

striking day after day. The voice of song was heard once more in the

tents, and the men commenced turning up their pipes, and chanting their

old familiar choruses. The railway pushed its iron feelers up the

hill-side to the camp. The wire ropes and rollers for the trains had

been partially laid down. Every day the plains and hill-sides were

streaked with columns of smoke, which marked the spots where fire was

destroying heaps of filth and corrupt animal and vegetable matter as

sacrifices on the altar of Health. The sanatorium was working in the

most satisfactory manner, and had produced the best results. The waters

of little streamlets were caught up in reservoirs to provide against

drought.

Upwards of 700 huts had been sent to camp and erected. The army,

animated by the constant inspection of Lord Raglan, and by the

supervision of the heads of the great military departments, was nearly

restored, in all but numbers, to what it was six months before.

Bakeries, under the control of Government, were established and the

troops were fed on wholesome bread. The silence and gloom of despondency

had passed away with the snows and the deadly lethargy of our terrible

winter. The blessed sounds of labour--twice blessed, but that they spoke

of war and bloodshed--rang throughout the camp, from the crowded shore

to the busy line of batteries.

It must not be forgotten, however, that the enemy derived equal

advantage from the improvement in the weather. Valley and plain were now

as firm as the finest road, and the whole country was open to the march

of artillery, cavalry, infantry, and commissariat wagons. Each day the

Russian camps on the north of Sebastopol increased and spread out. Each

night new watchfires attracted the eye. We heard that a formidable army

had assembled around Eupatoria, and it was certain that the country

between that town and Sebastopol was constantly traversed by horse and

foot, who were sometimes seen from the sea in very great numbers. The

actual works of the siege made no progress to justify one in

prophesying. Actual increase of lines and batteries, and armament there

was no doubt, but it existed on both sides, and there had been no

comparative advantage gained by the allies. The impression which had

long existed in the minds of many that Sebastopol could not be taken by

assault, considering the position of the north forts, the fleet, and the

army outside, gained ground. It was generally thought that the army

outside ought to have been attacked and dispersed, or that the

investment of the place should be completed, before we could hope to

reduce the city and the citadel.

[Sidenote: A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE SHAMROCK.]

But coupled with this impression was the far stronger conviction that,

had our army marched upon the place on the 25th of September, it would

have fallen almost without resistance. A Russian officer, who was taken

prisoner and who knew the state of the city well, declared that he could

not account for our "infatuation" in allowing the Russians to throw up

works and regain heart, when we could have walked into the place, unless

under the supposition that the hand of the Almighty was in it, and that

He had blinded the vision and perverted the judgment of our generals.

"And now," said he, "He has saved Sebastopol, and we, with His help,

will maintain it inviolate."

However, let bygones be bygones on this and other points as well--they

will be matters for history and posterity.

Several sea-service mortars, with a range of 3,500 yards, were sent up

to the front, and the new batteries, now about to open, had the heaviest

armament ever used in war.

On the 17th of March the Fourth Division had races. The meeting was well

attended, and had this advantage over the races at Karanyi, that the

course was almost under long range fire of the forts, and that the

thunder of the siege-guns rose now and then above the shouts of the

crowd in the heat of the sport. Not a drunken man was visible on the

course. Every face beamed with good humour and joy and high spirits. As

it was St. Patrick's Day, many an officer had a bit of some sorry green

substitute for a shamrock in his cap. Some thoughtful people at home had

actually sent out to their friends real shamrocks by post, which arrived

just in the nick of time, and an officer of my acquaintance was

agreeably surprised by his servant presenting himself at his bedside

with a semblance of that curious plant, which he had cut out of some

esculent vegetable with a pair of scissors, and a request that he would

wear it, "and nobody would ever know the differ."

A melancholy accident occurred on the same night. Mr. Leblanc, surgeon

of the 9th Regiment, was coming home after dark, and got outside the

French lines. He was challenged; and either did not hear or understand

what the man said. The Frenchman challenged again, and, receiving no

reply, shot the officer dead. Heavy firing was going on at the time, and

a serious affair on our right, another struggle for the pits, which the

enemy had thrown up on the right opposite the French, and which our

allies carried gallantly, but did not succeed in retaining.

These rifle-pits, which cost both armies such a quantity of ammunition,

and led to so considerable a sacrifice on the part of our allies, were

placed in front and to the right and left of the Tower of Malakoff,

about 600 yards from our works. They were simple excavations faced with

sandbags, loopholed, and banked round with earth. Each of these pits

contained about ten riflemen. Practice made these soldiers crack shots

and very expert, so that if a man showed for a moment above the works in

front of these pits he had instantly a small swarm of leaden hornets

buzzing round his ears.

They were so well covered and so admirably protected by the nature of

the ground that our riflemen could do nothing with them, and the French

sharpshooters were equally unsuccessful. It was determined to try a

round shot or two at them from one of the English batteries. The first

shot struck down a portion of the bank of one of the pits, the second

went slap into the sandbags, right through the parapet, and out at the

other side, and the riflemen, ignorant of Sir John Burgoyne's advice to

men similarly situated to adhere the more obstinately to their work the

more they are fired at by big guns, "bolted," and ran across the space

to their works. The French sharpshooters, who were in readiness to take

advantage of this moment, at once fired on the fugitives, but did not

hit one of them.

As it was made a point of honour by General Bosquet that our allies

should take these pits, about 5,000 men were marched up to the base of

the hills in front of our position, close to the Second and Light

Divisions, before dusk on the night of the 17th, and shortly afterwards

sent down to the advanced trenches on our right. At half-past six

o'clock they were ordered to occupy the pits. About half-past seven

o'clock the Fourth Division was turned out by Sir John Campbell, and

took up its position on the hill nearly in front of its tents, Sir

George Brown at the same time marched the Light Division a few hundred

yards forward to the left and front of their encampment. These Divisions

remained under arms for nearly four hours, and were marched back when

the French finally desisted from their assault on the pits. The Second

and Third Divisions were also in readiness. The Zouaves advanced with

their usual dash and intrepidity, but they found that the enemy were

already in possession. A fierce conflict commenced, but the French could

not drive the Russians out. Some misapprehension led the men in the

trenches to fire before their comrades reached the pits, and the enemy

dispatched a large force to the assistance of the troops already engaged

with the French, so that the latter were at last forced back. The

contest was carried on incessantly for four hours and a half, and roused

up the whole camp. From the almost ceaseless roll and flashing lines of

light in front one would have imagined that a general action between

considerable armies was going on, and the character of the fight had

something unusual about it owing to the absence of any fire of

artillery.

Had our allies required our assistance they would have received it, but

they were determined on taking and holding these pits, which, in fact,

were in front of their works, without any aid. The Zouaves bore the

brunt of the fight. Through the night air, in the lulls of the musketry,

the voices of the officers could be distinctly heard cheering on the

men, and encouraging them--"_En avant, mes enfans!_" "_En avant,

Zouaves!_" the tramp of feet and the rush of men followed; then a roll

of musketry was heard, diminishing to rapid file-firing--then a Russian

cheer--then more musketry--dropping shots--and the voices of the

officers once more. The French retired, with the loss of about 150 men

killed and wounded, and a few prisoners.

[Sidenote: SERVICES OF SIR JOHN BURGOYNE.]

On the 18th a force, computed to number about 15,000 men, entered

Sebastopol from the north side. Large trains of carts and waggons were

seen moving round towards the Belbek, and a considerable force

bivouacked by the waterside below the citadel. About the same time a

portion of the army of Inkerman, numbering, according to the best

calculations, 15,000, marched down towards Mackenzie's Farm, and was

reported to have crossed the Tchernaya and to have gone towards Baidar.

About four o'clock, General Canrobert, attended by a small staff and

escort, passed down the Woronzo Road by our right attack, and carefully

examined the position of the "pits," and the works of the Mamelon and of

the square redoubt to its right. At nightfall a strong force of French,

with six field-guns of "12," were moved down on the left of their

extreme right, and another attempt was made to take the pits from the

Russians, but it was not successful. Both parties retired from the

contest, after an hour's combat.

Our batteries pitched shot and shell right into the Mamelon, which the

Russians were fortifying rapidly, and they also threw some

excellently-aimed missiles into the new pits which the Russians had

erected on the ground where the French were so severely handled some

nights before. This redoubt had been armed. It was square, and mounted

sixteen guns on the three faces visible to us. The fire at Inkerman, of

the forts across the Tchernaya, and of the works of the Malakoff covered

this redoubt, and converged on the approaches in front.

Nearly all the firing during the night of the 19th was from the French

mortars. The enemy scarcely replied.

Important changes now took place among the generals. On the 21st Sir

John Burgoyne left the camp and proceeded to Kamiesch, where he took

passage by the mail steamer to England. All kinds of opinions and acts

had been attributed to Sir John while he was superintending the earlier

operations of the siege, but no one ever denied the entire devotion and

zeal which the veteran General displayed in the prosecution of the works

so far as he could control them. If his manner exhibited that stoical

apathy and indifference which distinguish the few remaining disciples of

"the Great Duke," his activity and personal energy were far beyond his

years. He was succeeded by Major-General Jones, who possessed activity

and energy, and it was hoped that these two appointments would

contribute to the improvement of the social and internal economy of the

army, and to the accomplishment of the objects of the expedition. The

name of the Adjutant-General Estcourt was no longer appended to the

general orders. It was the Chief of the Staff, General Simpson, who

waited on Lord Raglan each day to ascertain his wishes, and to receive

orders, and he communicated those orders to the Quartermaster and

Adjutant-General, and saw that they were duly executed.

The Engineer officers alleged there was great difficulty in finding men

to execute the necessary works, notwithstanding the improved condition

of our army and the diminution of work and labour which had taken place

since the co-operation of the French on our right. We frequently had not

more than 900 men for duty in the trenches of the left attack, although

it was considered that they ought to be defended by at least 1,200 men,

and that 1,500 men would be by no means too many for the duty. I saw one

parallel in which the officer on duty was told to cover the whole line

of work. He had about 340 men with him, and when he had extended his

line they were each nearly thirty paces apart. This was in a work

exposed to attack at any moment. Notwithstanding the ground taken by the

French, we were obliged to let the men stay for twenty-four hours at a

time in the trenches. On an average the men had not more than three

nights out of seven in bed. The French had five nights out of seven in

bed. With reference to the observations which were made at home on the

distribution of labour between the two armies, it must be borne in mind

that when the French and English first broke ground before Balaklava we

were as strong as our allies, and that it was some time after the siege

began ere the relative proportions of the two armies were considerably

altered to the advantage of the French by the arrival of their

reinforcements.

On the 22nd a furious fight raged along our front. About nine o'clock

8,000 Russians disposed themselves in the hollows of the ground, and

waited patiently till nightfall. Between eleven and twelve o'clock they

rushed on the French works in front of the Mamelon, and made a dash at

the trenches connecting our right with the French left. Their columns

came upon the men in our advanced trenches on the right attack, with the

bayonet, before we were quite prepared to receive them. When they were

first discerned, they were close, and, on being challenged, replied with

their universal shibboleth, "Bono Franciz." Taken at a great

disadvantage, and pressed by superior numbers, the 7th and 97th guarding

the trenches made a vigorous resistance, and drove the Russians out at

the point of the bayonet, but not until they had inflicted on us serious

loss, not the least being that of Captain Vicars of the 97th.

[Sidenote: A HAND-TO-HAND STRUGGLE.]

The 7th Fusileers had to run the gauntlet of a large body of the enemy,

whom they drove back _à la fourchette_. The 34th Regiment were attacked

by great numbers, and their Colonel, Kelly, was taken prisoner, and

carried off by the enemy. In the midst of the fight, on our right, where

the trench guards were at first repulsed, Major Gordon, of the Royal

Engineers, displayed that cool courage and presence of mind which never

forsook him. With a little switch in his hand, standing up on the top of

the parapet, he encouraged the men to defend the trenches, and hurl down

stones upon the Russians. He was struck by a ball which passed through

the lower part of his arm, and received a bullet through the shoulder.

After an hour's fight the enemy were driven back; but 3 officers and 14

rank and file were killed, 2 officers and 44 rank and file wounded, and

2 officers taken prisoners. Captain Chapman of the 20th

Regiment--Lieutenant Marsh, 33rd--Major Browne, 21st--Lieutenant Jordan,

34th (killed)--Captain Cavendish Browne, 7th (killed), and Captain

Vicars, 97th (killed), particularly distinguished themselves in the

affair.

The French lost 13 officers and 171 men killed, 12 officers and 359 men

wounded, and 4 officers and 83 men missing. Prince Gortschakoff admitted

a loss of 8 officers and 379 men killed, and 21 officers and 982 men

wounded. The hill-sides below the Round Tower and the Mamelon were

covered with their dead, mingled with the bodies of the French. The dead

were lying about among the gabions which had been knocked down in front

of the French sap in great numbers.

At the first charge at the Mortar Battery, the Russian leader, who wore

an Albanian costume, and whose gallantry was most conspicuous, fell

dead.

It was not known how many Albanian chiefs there were with the Russians;

but certainly the two who were killed led them on with intrepidity and

ferocious courage. One of them, who struggled into the battery in spite

of a severe wound, while his life-blood was ebbing fast, rushed at a

powder-barrel and fired his pistol into it before he fell. Fortunately

the powder did not explode, as the fire did not go through the wood.

Another, with a cimeter in one hand and a formidable curved blade, which

he used as a dagger, in the other, charged right into our ranks twice,

and fell dead the second time, perforated with balls and bayonets. They

were magnificently dressed, and were supposed to be men of rank.

When the Mortar Battery was carried, the enemy held it for about fifteen

minutes. At the time the heavy fire between the French and Russians was

going on, a portion of the 90th Regiment were employed on fatigue duty

on the right of the new advanced works on our right attack. They were in

the act of returning to their posts in the Gordon Battery just at the

moment the heavy firing on the right had ceased, when a scattered

irregular fusillade commenced in the dark on the left of their position

close to the Mortar Battery. Captain Vaughton, who commanded the party

of the 90th, ordered his men to advance along the covered way to the

works. They moved at the double time, and found the Russians in complete

possession of the Mortar Battery. The 90th at once opened a heavy fire

of musketry, when an alarm was given that they were firing upon the

French; but the enemy's fire being poured in with deadly effect, the

small party of the 90th were thrown into great confusion. With a loud

"hurrah," however, the gallant band sprang with the bayonet upon the

enemy, who precipitately retired over the parapet. In order to keep up

the fire, the men groped about among the dead Russians, and exhausted

the cartridges in the enemy's pouches.

As an act of justice, the names of the officers and men of the party of

the 90th Regiment whose conduct was distinguished in this affair should

be recorded. They are--Clarke, Brittle, and Essex (sergeants),

Caruthers, severely wounded (corporal), Fare, Walsh, Nicholson

(wounded), and Nash. Captain Vaughton received a severe contusion in the

affair. The courage displayed by Captain Cavendish Browne, of the 7th,

in another part of the works, was conspicuous. He was severely wounded

at the commencement of the attack, but he refused to go to the rear,

though nearly fainting from loss of blood. He led on his men,

encouraging them by voice and gesture, to the front. When his body was

found, it lay far in advance of our line, with three balls in the chest.

Early on Saturday morning a flag of truce was sent in by the allies with

a proposition to the Russians for an armistice to bury the dead, lying

in numbers--five or six Russians to every Frenchman and Englishman--in

front of the Round Tower and Mamelon, and after some delay, an answer in

the affirmative was returned, and it was arranged that two hours should

be granted for collecting and carrying away the dead on both sides. The

news spread through the camps, and the races which the Chasseurs

d'Afrique had got up in excellent style were much shorn of their

attractions by the opportunity afforded of meeting our enemies upon

neutral ground. The day was beautifully bright and warm. White flags

waved gently in the faint spring breeze above the embrasures of our

batteries, and from the Round Tower and Mamelon. Not a soul had been

visible in front of the lines an instant before the emblems of peace

were run up to the flagstaffs, and a sullen gun from the Mamelon and a

burst of smoke from Gordon's batteries had but a short time previously

heralded the armistice. The instant the flags were hoisted, friend and

foe swarmed out of the embrasures. The Riflemen of the allies and of the

enemy rose from their lairs in the rifle pits, and sauntered towards

each other to behold their grim handiwork. The whole of the space

between the Russian lines and our own was filled with groups of unarmed

soldiery. Passing down by the Middle Picket Ravine, which was then

occupied by the French, and which ran down in front of the Light

Division camp, I came out upon the advanced French trench, within a few

hundred yards of the Mamelon. The sight was strange beyond description.

French, English, and Russian officers were walking about saluting each

other courteously as they passed, and occasionally entered into

conversation, and a constant interchange of little civilities, such as

offering and receiving cigar-lights, was going on. Some of the Russian

officers were evidently men of high rank and breeding, their polished

manners contrasted remarkably with their plain, and rather coarse

clothing. They wore the invariable long grey coat over their uniforms.

Many of the Russians looked like English gentlemen in face and bearing.

One tall, fine-looking old man, with a long grey beard and strangely

shaped cap, was pointed out to us as Hetman of the Cossacks in the

Crimea. The French officers were all _en grande tenue_, and offered a

striking contrast to many of our own officers, who were still dressed _à

la_ Balaklava, and wore uncouth head-dresses, cat-skin coats, and

nondescript paletots. The Russians seemed to fraternize with the French

more than with us. The men certainly got on better with our allies than

with the privates of our regiments who were down towards the front.

[Sidenote: A BREATHING SPACE.]

While this civility was going on, we were walking over blood-stained

ground, covered with evidences of recent fight, among the dead. Broken

muskets, bayonets, cartouch-boxes, caps, fragments of clothing, straps

and belts, pieces of shell, little pools of clotted blood, shot--round

and grape--shattered gabions and sand-bags, were visible on every side.

Through the midst of the crowd stalked solemn processions of soldiers

bearing their departed comrades to their long home. I counted

seventy-seven litters borne past me in fifteen minutes--each filled with

a dead enemy.

At one time a Russian with a litter stopped by a dead body, and put it

into the litter. He looked round for a comrade to help him. A Zouave at

once advanced with much grace and lifted it, to the infinite amusement

of the bystanders; but the joke was not long-lived, as a Russian came up

brusquely and helped to carry off his dead comrade.

Some few French, dead, were lying far in advance among the gabions

belonging to the advanced trenches, which the Russians had broken down,

evidently slain in pursuit. The Russian soldiers were white-faced, many

of them had powerful frames, square shoulders, and broad chests. All

their dead near our lines were stripped of boots and stockings. The

cleanliness of their feet, and of their coarse linen shirts, was

remarkable. In the midst of this stern evidence of war, a certain amount

of lively conversation began to spring up, in which the Russian officers

indulged in badinage. Some of them asked our officers "when we were

coming in to take the place?" others "when we thought of going away?"

Some congratulated us upon the excellent opportunity we had of getting a

good look at Sebastopol, as the chance of a nearer view was not in their

opinion very probable. One officer asked a private confidentially in

English how many men we sent into the trenches? "Begorra, only 7,000 a

night, and a covering party of 10,000," was the ready reply. The officer

laughed and turned away. In the town we could see large bodies of

soldiery assembled at the corners in the streets, and in the public

places. Probably they were ordered out to make a show of their strength.

Owing to some misunderstanding or other, a little fusillade began among

the riflemen on the left during the armistice, but it soon terminated.

The armistice was over about three o'clock. Scarcely had the white flag

disappeared behind the parapet of the Mamelon before a round shot from

the sailors' battery went slap through one of the embrasures of the

Russian work, and dashed up a great pillar of earth inside. The Russians

at once replied, and the noise of cannon soon re-echoed through the

ravines.

On the night of the 26th, Captain Hill, 89th Regiment, in proceeding to

post his pickets, made a mistake in the dark, and got too near the

Russian pickets. He was not very well acquainted with the country, and

the uncertain light deceived him. The Russians challenged, "Qui va là?"

"Français!" was the reply. The two pickets instantly fired, and Captain

Hill dropped. There were only two or three men with him, and they

retired, taking with them the Captain's great-coat. They went a few

yards to the rear to get assistance, and returned at once to the place

where Captain Hill fell, but his body had been removed, and the Russian

pickets had withdrawn.

On Monday the 2nd of April, M. St. Laurent, Commandant of French

Engineers in the right attack, was mortally wounded in the battery over

Inkerman. One of the most important works of the right attack bore his

name, and he did much to place that portion of our works in a most

efficient state.

The Russians now frequently amused themselves by shelling the camp. On

the 4th, when there was a large crowd of French and English, including

some of the staff, in front of the picket-house, near the Mortar

Battery, suddenly a shell fell right into the midst of the group. The

greater part of the assembly threw themselves down and rolled away on

the ground. At last the shell burst, and one of the fragments struck and

wounded a French sentry about fifty yards off. Led horses broke loose or

were let go and scampered off in all directions, and as the few officers

who had nerve to remain and enjoy the discomfiture of the runaways were

enjoying the joke, down came another shell into the very centre of them.

The boldest could not stand this, and in a few minutes not a soul was to

be seen near the ground. The Military Secretary lost his cap, owing to

the eccentric evolutions of his frightened quadruped, but he speedily

recovered it, and that was the only loss caused by the two shells,

excepting the poor fellow put _hors de combat_ for the time.

[Sidenote: THE STRENGTH OF THE BRITISH.]

"Cathcart's Hill," in front of the Fourth Division camp, was the

favourite resort of sight-seers. The place derived its name from General

Cathcart using it as a look-out station, and as his resort of a morning.

The flag of the division, a red and white burgee, floated from a staff

on the left front angle of the parallelogram, and two stands were

erected for telescopes in front. A look-out man was stationed to observe

the movements of the enemy. To the front of the flagstaff on the left

was a cave in which Sir John Campbell lived. He found it a welcome

refuge during the storm of the 14th of November. It was marked by a

little wooden fence resting on cannon shot, around which there was an

impromptu flower-garden. The General's marquee and the tents of his

staff were close at hand. It commanded a view of the extreme French left

towards Kamiesch, and of their approaches to the Flagstaff Battery and

the crenellated wall. Taking up the view from this point on the left,

the eye rested upon the mass of ruins in front of the French lines,

seamed here and there with banks of earth or by walls of gabions, dotted

with embrasures. This part of Sebastopol, between the sea at Artillery

Bay and the Dockyard Creek, was exceedingly like portions of old London

after the first burst of the Wide-Street Commissioners upon it. There

was a strip of ruin the combined work of French and Russians, about two

miles long and 300 or 400 yards broad, and it swept round the town like

a zone. The houses inside were injured, but the tall white store-houses,

the domes of churches, the porticoes of palaces, and the public

buildings, shone pleasantly in the sunshine. Tier after tier of roofs

rose up the crest of the hill. In front of this portion of the town the

dun steppes were scarred all over by the lines of the French approaches,

from which at intervals arose the smoke-wreaths of cannon or the puffs

of the rifle, answered from the darker lines of the Russians in front of

the city. At night this space was lighted up incessantly by the

twinkling flashes of musketry. Cathcart's Hill commanded a view of the

whole position, with the exception of a portion of the left attack.

The ground in rear of the dark lines, serrated with black iron teeth

which marked our batteries, seemed almost deserted. The soldiers

sauntered about in groups just below the cover of the parapets, and a

deep greyish blue line denoted the artillerymen and covering parties. In

front were the Russian entrenchments and batteries with the black

muzzles of the guns peering through the embrasures. The grey-coated

Russians stalked about the inner parapets, busily carrying gabions and

repairing the damaged works. Suddenly a thick spirt of white smoke

bursts from the face of the Mamelon, the shot bounds into Gordon's

Battery, knocks up a pillar of earth, and then darts forward, throwing

up a cloud of dust at each ricochet. Scarcely has it struck the parapet

before another burst of smoke rushes out of one of the embrasures of the

Naval Battery, and a mass of whitish earth is dashed up into the air

from the Mamelon. Then comes a puff from one of the French batteries on

the right, and a shell bursts right in the devoted work. "Bravo the

sailors!" "Well done, French!" cry the spectators. As the words leave

their lips two or three guns from the Round Tower, and as many from the

Mamelon, hurl shot and shell in reply. A duel of this kind, with the

occasional _divertissement_ of a shell or round shot at working or

covering parties, sometimes lasted all day.

Now and then our sea-service mortars spoke out with a dull roar that

shook the earth. After what seems nearly a minute of expectation a cloud

of smoke and dust at the rear of the Round Tower denoted the effect of

the terrible missiles. About twelve o'clock in the day the Russians left

off work to go to dinner, and our men followed their example; silence

reigned almost uninterruptedly for two hours or more, and then towards

four o'clock the firing began again. Meantime our officers walked about

or lounged on the hill-side, and smoked and chatted away the interval

between breakfast and the hasty dinner which preceded the turn-out for

twenty-four hours' vigil in the trenches. Many a hospitable cigar and

invitation to lunch were given, the latter with the surer confidence,

and with a greater chance of a ready acceptance, after the Crimean Army

Fund had been established, and one was tolerably sure of a slice of a

giant game-pie, to be washed down by a temperate draught of that

glorious Welbeck ale which made the Duke of Portland's name a household

word in our army.

Our first railway trip, on the 5th of April, had rather an unfortunate

termination. A party of the 71st Regiment, which had been sent up from

Balaklava on Land Transport mules, came down before dark to

Head-Quarters, where they were inspected by Lord Raglan, who kept them

longer than Mr. Beatty, the engineer, desired. At last, as it was

getting dark, the men got into the waggons, which proceeded down the

steep incline towards Balaklava. The breaks became useless, the director

managed to check the waggons, but many were severely injured. One man

was killed upon the spot, and several had to undergo surgical

operations.[19]

CHAPTER III.

Second Bombardment--Results--Visit to Balaklava--Watching the

Fire--Casualties--Attitude of the Allied Fleet--Effects of the

Cannonade--Turkish Infantry--Contest for the Rifle-pits--A Golden

Opportunity--The Fire slackens.

On Easter Monday, April 9, the allied batteries simultaneously opened

fire. The English works were armed with twenty 13-inch mortars, sixteen

10-inch mortars, twenty 24-pounders, forty-two 32-pounders, fifteen

8-inch guns, four 10-inch guns, and six 68-pounders. Late on the 8th,

hearing that there was nothing likely to take place on Monday, I left

the front, and returned to Balaklava; but in the evening I received an

intimation that fire would open at daybreak the following morning. It

was then black as Erebus, and raining and blowing with violence; yet

there was no choice for it but to take to the saddle and try to make for

the front. No one who has not tried it can fancy what work it is to find

one's way through widely-spread camps in a pitch-dark night. Each camp

is so much like its fellow that it is impossible to discriminate between

one and the other; and landmarks, familiar in the day-time, are lost in

one dead level of blackness. So my two companions and myself, after

stumbling into Turkish and French lines, into holes and out of them,

found ourselves, after three hours' ride, very far indeed from our

destination in the front, and glad to stop till dawn, wet and tired, at

the head-quarters' camp.

At four o'clock A.M. we left for the front. The horses could scarcely

get through the sticky black mud into which the hard dry soil had been

turned by one night's rain. Although it was early dawn, it was not

possible to see a man twenty yards off. A profound silence reigned.

Suddenly three guns were heard on the left towards the French lines, and

then the whole line of batteries opened. The Garden and Redan Batteries

came into play soon after we opened fire, but some time elapsed before

the Round Tower or the Mamelon answered. The enemy were taken completely

by surprise, and for half an hour their guns were weakly handled.

[Sidenote: THE NEW BOMBARDMENT.]

The Inkerman and Careening Bay Batteries were almost silent for

three-quarters of an hour before they replied to the French batteries on

our right.

A driving rain and a Black Sea fog whirled over the whole camp, which

resumed the miserable aspect so well known to us during the winter.

Tents were blown down, and the ground, as far as it was visible, looked

like a black lake, studded with innumerable pools of dun-coloured water.

It was not easy, so murky was the sky and so strong the wind, to see the

flashes or hear the report of the Russian guns or of the French cannon

on either flank, though the spot from which I watched was within a

couple of hundred yards of the enemy's range; but we could tell that our

batteries in front were thundering away continuously in irregular

bursts, firing some twenty-five or thirty shots per minute. Early in the

morning they were firing from seventy to eighty shots per minute, but

they reduced the rate of fire. The sound was not so great as that of the

17th of October. Just as the cannonade opened, the sailors came over the

hills from the batteries, where they had been relieved, and a few men of

the Third Division turned out of the huts to the front, evidently very

much astonished at the sudden opening of the fire. On the extreme left

the French batteries were firing with energy on the loopholed wall, and

on the Flagstaff and Garden Batteries, which were replying very feebly.

Our left attack (Greenhill or Chapman's Batteries), directed its fire

principally against the Redan, which only answered by five or six guns.

Our right attack (Gordon's) aided by the advanced battery and by the

French redoubts, had silenced the Mamelon and fired three or four shots

for every one from the Round Tower. The Russian batteries to the right

of the Mamelon were voiceless. So much could be seen, when rain and mist

set in once more, and shut out all, save one faint blear of yellowish

haze to the west. The storm was so heavy that scarcely a soul stirred

out all day. It was dark as night. Lord Raglan stationed himself at his

favourite place. On Cathcart's Hill only Sir John Campbell and an

aide-de-camp were visible in front of the General's tent. Colonel Dacres

was the only officer in front of Cathcart's Hill when I went up, with

the exception of Sir John Campbell. The rain descended in torrents,

there was nothing to be seen, heard, or learnt, every one withdrew to

shelter after a long and hopeless struggle with the weather. The firing

slackened considerably after twelve o'clock.

About five o'clock in the evening the sun descended into a rift in the

dark grey pall which covered the sky, and cast a slice of pale yellow

light, barred here and there by columns of rain and masses of curling

vapour, across the line of batteries. The eye of painter never rested on

a more extraordinary effect, as the sickly sun, flattened between bars

of cloud, seemed to force its way through the leaden sky to cast one

look on the plateau, lighted up by incessant flashes of light; and long

trails of white smoke, tinged with fire, whirled away by the wind. The

outlines of the town, faintly rendered through the mists of smoke and

rain, seemed quivering inside the circling lines of fire around the

familiar outlines--the green cupola and roofs, long streets and ruined

suburbs, the dockyard buildings, trenches and batteries.

The only image calculated to convey an idea of the actual effect is a

vision of the Potteries seen at night, all fervid with fire, out of the

windows of an express train.

The practice from the left of the left attack and from the right of the

right attack, which was more under observation than other parts of our

works, was admirable. Our shell practice was not so good as it might

have been, on account of bad fuzes. A large proportion burst in the air.

Some of our fuzes were made in 1802. I have heard of some belonging to

the last century, but some recent manufacture turned out the worst.

A strange and almost unexampled accident occurred in one of our

batteries. A 13-inch mortar burst into two pieces, splitting up

longitudinally. One of the masses was thrown thirty yards to the right,

and another to the left, and though the fragments flew along the

traverses and parapet, not one person was killed or wounded. We were

less fortunate in the case of the Lancaster gun, which was struck by a

shot, killing and wounding severely six men. Several engineer officers

declared their satisfaction at getting rid of the gun, in which they

could place no confidence, on account of its wild and uncertain firing.

The French silenced eight or nine guns of the Bastion du Mât

(Flagstaff), and almost shut up the Inkerman Batteries. On our side we

had silenced half the guns in the Redan and Malakoff, and had in

conjunction with the French left the Mamelon only one out of seven guns,

but the Garden, the Road, and the Barrack Batteries were comparatively

uninjured, and kept up a brisk fire all day. General Bizot received a

fatal wound in our right attack just as he was lamenting the thinness of

our parapets. He was struck by a rifle-ball under the ear, and died

shortly after, much regretted by our allies and by ourselves.

The Russians, with great _sangfroid_, repaired the batteries, and

appeared to have acquired confidence, but their fire was by no means so

brisk as it was when the siege commenced. Omar Pasha visited Lord Raglan

again on Wednesday, the 11th, and there was another council of war, at

which General Canrobert and General Bosquet were present.

[Sidenote: THE BOMBARDMENT CONTINUES.]

The expectation which the outsiders entertained that "the fleet would go

in" on the third day was not realized. At daybreak I was up at

Cathcart's Hill. The view was obscured by drizzling rain, but the hulls

and rigging of the steamers and line-of-battle ships were visible; and

though clouds of steam were flying from the funnels, it was quite

evident that the fleet had no intention of taking part in the

bombardment. Their presence there had, however, the effect of drawing

off a number of the Russian gunners, for the sea batteries on the north

and south sides were all manned, and we could see the artillerymen and

sailors inside the parapets standing by their guns. It was evident that

the Russians had more than recovered from their surprise, and laboured

to recover the ground they had lost with all their might. They resorted

to their old practice of firing six or seven guns in a salvo--a method

also adopted by the French. Large reserves of infantry were drawn up

near the north forts, and the corps over Inkerman were under arms. The

Russians could be seen carrying their wounded across to the north side.

The cannonade continued all day uninterruptedly, but I could not see

that any great change had been made in the profile of the enemy's works.

Several of the embrasures in the Redan had been destroyed, and the Round

Tower works were a good deal "knocked about;" but there was no reduction

in the weight of the enemy's fire.

Lord Raglan visited the front and spent some time examining the effects

of the fire. Sir John M'Neill, Colonel Tulloch, General Pennefather, and

Sir George Brown, were frequently among the spectators on the advanced

mounds commanding a view of the operations. During the night the French

attacked some rifle-pits at the Quarantine Cemetery, but were repulsed

after a very serious affair, in which they lost 300 men; not, however,

without inflicting great loss and damage on the enemy.

At dawn on Thursday, the 12th, the allied batteries and the Russians

recommenced. The enemy exerted themselves to repair damages during the

night, replaced damaged guns, mended embrasures and parapets, and were,

in fact, nearly as ready to meet our fire as they had been at any time

for six months. On our side, four of the guns for the advanced parallel,

which for the previous two nights we had failed to get into position,

were brought down after dark, and it was expected that material results

would be produced by their fire when they were in position. Orders were

sent to restrict the firing to 120 rounds per gun each day. The 13-inch

mortar battery fired parsimoniously one round per mortar every thirty

minutes, as it requires a long time to cool the great mass of iron

heated by the explosion of 16lb. of powder.

The bombardment did not cease during the day, but it was not so heavy on

the whole as it had been on the three previous days. At fifty minutes

past four the batteries relaxed firing, renewed it at six, and the fire

was very severe till nightfall. Then the bombardment commenced and

lasted till daybreak. The Sailors' Brigade suffered very severely. They

lost more men than all our siege-train working and covering parties put

together. Up to half-past three o'clock on Friday, they had had

seventy-three men killed and wounded, two officers killed, one wounded,

and two or three contused.

At four o'clock on Friday morning, April 13, the Russians opened a

destructive fire on our six-gun battery, which was in a very imperfect

state, and by concentrating the fire of twenty guns upon it, dismounted

some of the pieces and injured the works severely, so as to render the

battery useless. One of our 24-pounders was burst by a shot which

entered right at the muzzle as the gun was being discharged. Another

gun, struck by a shot in the muzzle, was split up to the trunnions, the

ball then sprang up into the air, and, falling at the breech, knocked

off the button. In the very heat of the fire on the 12th, a Russian

walked through one of the embrasures of the Round Tower, coolly

descended the parapet, took a view of the profile of the work, and

sauntered back again--a piece of bravado which very nearly cost him his

life, as a round shot struck within a yard of him, and a shell burst

near the embrasure as he re-entered.

Two divisions of Turkish infantry encamped near the English

head-quarters. They mustered about 15,000 men, and finer young fellows I

never saw. They had had a long march, and their sandal shoon afforded

sorry protection against the stony ground; and yet few men fell out of

the ranks. One regiment had a good brass band, which almost alarmed the

bystanders by striking up a quick step (waltz) as they marched past, in

excellent style, but the majority of the regiments were preceded by

musicians with drums, fifes, and semicircular thin brass tubes, with

wide mouths, such as those which may have tumbled the walls of Jericho,

or are seen on the sculptured monuments of primæval kings.

The colonel and his two majors rode at the head of each regiment, and

followed by pipe-bearers and servants, richly dressed, on small but

spirited horses, covered with rich saddle-cloths. The mules, with the

tents, marched on the right--the artillery on the left. Each gun was

drawn by six horses. The two batteries consisted of four 24lb. brass

howitzers, and two 9lb. brass field pieces; the carriages and horses

were in a very serviceable state. The ammunition boxes were rather

coarse and heavy. The baggage animals of the division marched in the

rear, and the regiments marched in columns of companies three deep, each

company on an average with a front of twenty rank and file. One of the

regiments had Minié rifles of English make; the others were armed with

flint firelocks, but they were very clean and bright. They displayed

standards, blazing with cloth of gold, and flags with the crescent and

star upon them. The men carried blankets, squares of carpet for prayer,

cooking utensils, and packs of various sizes and substances. As they

marched over the undulating ground they presented a very picturesque and

warlike spectacle, the reality of which was enhanced by the thunder of

the guns at Sebastopol, and the smoke-wreaths from shells bursting high

in the air.

At a council of war on the 13th, the question of assaulting the place

was discussed, but Lord Raglan and the other English generals who were

in favour of doing so were overruled by General Canrobert and General

Niel.

Omar Pasha, attended by his suite, rode round the rear of our batteries

on the 15th, and Lord Raglan visited the Turkish encampment on the hills

to the west of the Col de Balaklava.

[Sidenote: THE BOMBARDMENT CONTINUES.]

On Saturday night (14th), there was a severe and protracted conflict on

the left, for the French rifle-pits in front of the Quarantine Works. At

first, the weight of the columns which swept out of the enemy's lines

bore back the French in the advanced works, where the covering parties

were necessarily thin, and many lost their lives by the bayonet. Our

allies, having received aid, charged the Russians into their own lines,

to which they fled with such precipitation that the French entered

along with them, and could have spiked their advanced guns had the men

been provided with the means. As they were retiring, the enemy made a

sortie in greater strength than before. A sanguinary fight took place,

in which the bayonet, the musket-stock, and the bullet were used in a

pell-mell struggle, but the French asserted their supremacy, and in

defiance of the stubborn resistance of the Russians, evoked by the cries

and example of the officers, forced them battling back across their

trenches once more, and took possession of the rifle-pits, which they

held all night. The loss of our allies was considerable in this

brilliant affair. The energy and spirit with which the French fought

were beyond all praise.

The next morning our advanced batteries were armed with fourteen guns.

They opened at daybreak, and directed so severe a fire against the

Russian batteries throughout the day, that they concentrated a number of

guns upon the two batteries. We nevertheless maintained our fire.

At half-past eight o'clock in the evening (15th), three mines,

containing 50,000 pounds of powder, were exploded with an appalling

crash, in front of the batteries of the French, seventy yards in front

of the third parallel. The fourth and principal mine was not exploded,

as it was found to be close to the gallery of a Russian mine, and the

French were unable to make such a lodgment as was anticipated; but they

established themselves in the course of the night in a portion of the

outer work. The _etonnoirs_ were, after several days' hard labour and

nights of incessant combat, connected with the siege works. The

Russians, believing the explosion to be the signal for a general

assault, ran to their guns, and for an hour their batteries vomited

forth prodigious volumes of fire against our lines from one extremity to

the other. The force and fury of their cannonade was astonishing, but

notwithstanding the length and strength of the fire, it caused but

little damage to the works or to their defenders. Next day the magazine

of our eight-gun battery in the right attack was blown up by a shell,

and seven of our guns were silenced, but the eighth was worked with

great energy by Captain Dixon, R. A., who commanded in the battery.

On the 17th, the 10th Hussars arrived, and five hundred sabres were

added to the strength of our cavalry. Our fire had much diminished by

the 18th of April. The Russian fire slackened just in proportion as they

found our guns did not play upon them. The French batteries also relaxed

a little. In the night we carried a rifle-pit in front of our right

attack, and commenced a sap towards the Redan. The Russians made sorties

on the French in the third parallel, and were only repulsed after hard

fighting and loss.

CHAPTER IV.

A Reconnaissance by the Turks--Relics of the Heavy Cavalry

Brigade--Interior of a Church--A Brush with the Cossacks--Severe

Struggles for the Rifle-pits--Gallantry of the French--Grand

Military Spectacle--General Canrobert addressing the Troops--Talk

in the Trenches--Rumours.

A reconnaissance was made by twelve battalions of Turkish troops under

the command of His Excellency Omar Pasha, assisted by French and English

cavalry and artillery, on the 19th. Orders were sent to the 10th Hussars

(Brigadier-General Parlby, of the Light Cavalry, in temporary command of

the Cavalry Division, during General Scarlett's absence), to the

head-quarters of the Heavy Cavalry Brigade, to the C troop of the Royal

Horse Artillery, to be in readiness to turn out at daybreak. The

Chasseurs d'Afrique and a French rocket troop accompanied the

_reconnaissance_, and rendered excellent service during the day. As the

morning was fine and clear, the sight presented by the troops advancing

towards Kamara across the plain from the heights was very beautiful. So

little was known about the _reconnaissance_, that many officers at

head-quarters were not aware of it, till they learnt that Lord Raglan,

attended by a few members of the staff, had started to overtake the

troops. A great number of amateurs, forming clouds of very irregular

cavalry, followed and preceded the expedition. The Pasha, who was

attended by Behrem Pasha (Colonel Cannon), and several Turkish officers

of rank, had the control of the movement.

The Turks marched in column; the sunlight flashing on the polished

barrels of their firelocks and on their bayonets, relieved the sombre

hue of the mass, for their dark blue uniforms, but little relieved by

facings or gay shoulder-straps and cuffs, looked quite black when the

men were together. The Chasseurs d'Afrique, in powder-blue jackets, with

white cartouch belts, and bright red pantaloons, mounted on white Arabs,

caught the eye like a bed of flowers. Nor did the rich verdure require

any such borrowed beauty, for the soil produced an abundance of wild

flowering shrubs and beautiful plants. Dahlias, anemones, sweetbriar,

whitethorn, wild parsley, mint, thyme, sage, asparagus, and a hundred

other different citizens of the vegetable kingdom, dotted the plain, and

as the infantry moved along, their feet crushed the sweet flowers, and

the air was filled with delicate odours. Rectangular patches of long,

rank, rich grass, waving high above the more natural green meadow,

marked the mounds where the slain of the 25th of October were reposing,

and the snorting horses refused to eat the unwholesome shoots that

sprang there.

[Sidenote: A SKIRMISH.]

The skeleton of an English dragoon, said to be one of the Royals, lay

extended on the plain, with tattered bits of red cloth hanging to the

bones of his arms. The man must have fallen early in the day, when the

Heavy Cavalry, close to Canrobert's Hill, came under fire of the Russian

artillery. There was a Russian skeleton close at hand in ghastly

companionship. The small bullet-skull, round as a cannon-ball, was still

covered with grisly red locks. Farther on, the body of another Russian

seemed starting out of the grave. The half-decayed skeletons of

artillery and cavalry horses covered with rotting trappings, harness,

and saddles, lay as they fell, in a _débris_ of bone and skin, straps,

cloth, and buckles. From the graves, the uncovered bones of the tenants

started through the soil, as if to appeal against the haste with which

they had been buried. With the clash of drums and the shrill strains of

the fife, with the champing of bits and ringing of steel, in all the

pride of life, man and horse swept over the remnants of the dead.

The relics of the Heavy Cavalry Brigade, Scots Greys and Enniskillens,

4th Dragoon Guards and 5th Dragoon Guards, passed over the scene of

their grand encounter with the Muscovite cavalry. The survivors might

well feel proud. The 10th Hussars were conspicuous for the soldierly and

efficient look of the men, and the fine condition of their light,

sinewy, and showy horses. As the force descended into the plain they

extended, and marched towards Kamara, spreading across the ground in

front of Canrobert's Hill from No. 2 Turkish Redoubt up to the slope

which leads to the village. A party of Turkish infantry followed the

cavalry in skirmishing order, and on approaching the village, proceeded

with great activity to cover the high wooded hill which overhung the

village to the right. The Turks were preceded by a man armed with a bow

and arrows, who said he was a Tcherkess. In addition to his bow and

arrows, he carried a quaint old pistol, and his coat-breast was wadded

with cartridges.

The few Cossacks in the village abandoned it after firing a few

straggling shots at the advanced skirmishers. One had been taken so

completely by surprise that he left his lance leaning against a wall. An

officer of the 71st espied it just as the Cossack was making a bolt to

recover it. They both rode their best, but the Briton was first, and

carried off the lance in triumph, while the Cossack retreated with

affected pantomime, representing rage and despair.

I looked into the church, the floor of which had been covered an inch in

depth with copper money, when the expedition first came to Balaklava.

The simple faith of the poor people in the protection of their church

had not been violated by us, but the Cossacks appeared to have had no

such scruples, for not a copeck was to be seen, and the church was bare

and desolate, and stripped of every adornment. As soon as the Turks on

the right had gained the summit of the hill above Kamara, three of the

columns advanced and drew up on the slope in front of the church. A

detachment was sent towards Baidar, but could see no enemy, and they

contented themselves with burning a building which the Cossacks had left

standing, the smoke from which led some of us to believe that a little

skirmish was going on among the hills.

Meantime the force, leaving three columns halted at Kamara, marched past

Canrobert's Hill, the sides of which were covered with the wigwams of

the Russians--some recent, others those which were burnt when Liprandi

retired. They passed by the old Turkish redoubts Nos. 1 and 2, towards a

very steep and rocky conical hill covered with loose stones, near the

top of which the Russians had thrown up a wall about 2-1/2 feet high. A

group of Cossacks and Russian officers assembled on the top to watch our

movements. The Turks ascended the hill with ardour and agility, firing

as they advanced, the Cossacks replied by a petty fusillade. Suddenly an

arch of white smoke rose from the ground with a fierce, hissing noise,

throwing itself like a great snake towards the crest of the hill; as it

flew onward the fiery trail was lost, but a puff of smoke burst out on

the hill-top, and the Cossacks and Russians disappeared with

precipitation. In fact, the French had begun their rocket practice with

great accuracy. Nothing could be better for such work as this than their

light rocket troops. The apparatus was simple and portable--a few mules,

with panniers on each side, carried the whole of the tubes, cases,

sticks, fuzes, &c., and the effect of rockets, though uncertain, is very

great, especially against cavalry; the skirmishers crowned the hill. The

Russians rode rapidly down and crossed the Tchernaya by the bridge and

fords near Tchorgoun. Omar Pasha, Lord Raglan, and the French generals

spent some time in surveying the country, while the troops halted in

rear, the artillery and cavalry first, supported by four battalions of

Egyptians. At two o'clock the _reconnaissance_ was over, and the troops

retired to the camp, the skirmishers of the French cavalry being

followed by the Cossacks, and exchanging long shots with them from time

to time, at a prudent distance. Altogether, the _reconnaissance_ was a

most welcome and delightful interlude in the dull, monotonous

"performances" of the siege. Every one felt as if he had got out of

prison at last, and had beaten the Cossacks, and I never saw more

cheering, joyous faces at a cover side than were to be seen on

Canrobert's Hill. It was a fillip to our spirits to get a gallop across

the greensward once more, and to escape from the hateful feeling of

constraint and confinement which bores us to death in the camp.

On the same night a very gallant feat of arms was performed by the 77th

Regiment. In front of the Redan, opposite our right attack, the Russians

had established capacious pits, from which they annoyed us considerably,

particularly from the two nearest to us on the left-hand side. Round

shot and shell had several times forced the Russians to bolt across the

open ground to their batteries, but at night they repaired damages, and

were back again as busy as ever in the morning. Our advanced battery

would have been greatly harassed by this fire when it opened, and it was

resolved to take the two pits, to hold that which was found most

tenable, and to destroy the other. The pits were complete little

batteries for riflemen, constructed with great skill and daring, and

defended with vigour and resolution, and the fire from one well

established within 300 or 400 yards of a battery was sufficient to

silence the guns and keep the gunners from going near the embrasures.

[Sidenote: DETERMINED BRAVERY.]

At eight o'clock the 77th, under Lieutenant-Colonel Egerton, with a

wing of the 33rd in support in the rear, moved down the traverses

towards these rifle-pits. The night was dark and windy, but the Russian

sentries perceived the approach of our men, and a brisk fire was at once

opened, to which our troops scarcely replied, for they rushed upon the

enemy with the bayonet, and, after a short struggle, drove them out of

the two pits and up the slope behind them. It was while setting an

example of conspicuous bravery to his men that Colonel Egerton fell

mortally wounded. Once in the pits, the engineers set to work, threw up

a gabionnade in front, and proceeded to connect the nearest rifle-pit

with our advanced sap. The enemy opened an exceedingly heavy fire on

them, and sharpshooters from the parapets and from the broken ground

kept up a very severe fusillade; but the working party continued in

defiance of the storm of shot which tore over them; and remained in

possession of the larger of the pits. The General of the day of the

right attack telegraphed to head-quarters that our troops had gained the

pits, and received directions to keep them at all hazards. At two

o'clock in the morning a strong column of Russians advanced against the

pits, and the combat was renewed. The enemy were met by the bayonet,

they were thrust back again and again, and driven up to their batteries.

The pit was most serviceable, not only against the embrasures of the

Redan, but in reducing the fire of the rifle-pits on its flank. A

drummer boy of the 77th engaged in the _mêlée_ with a bugler of the

enemy, made him prisoner and took his bugle--a little piece of juvenile

gallantry for which he was well rewarded.

Next night the Russians sought to reoccupy the pits, but were speedily

repulsed; the 41st Regiment had fifteen men killed and wounded. The pit

was finally filled in with earth, and re-abandoned.

On the 24th a council of war was held at head-quarters, and it was

resolved to make the assault at 1 P.M. on the 28th. The English were to

attack the Redan; the French the Ouvrages Blancs, Bastion du Mât,

Bastion Centrale, and Bastion de la Quarantaine. In the course of the

evening General Canrobert, however, was informed by the French admiral,

that the French army of Reserve would arrive from Constantinople in a

week,--it was said, indeed, the Emperor would come out to take the

command in person, and the assault was deferred.

During the night of the 24th the Russians came out of the Bastion du Mât

(Flagstaff battery) soon after dark, and began excavating rifle-pits

close to the French. Our allies drove them back at the point of the

bayonet. The enemy, stronger than before, returned to their labour, and,

covered by their guns, succeeded in making some progress in the work,

finally, after a struggle which lasted from eight o'clock till three

o'clock in the morning, and prodigious expenditure of ammunition. The

French loss was estimated at 200. The Russians must have lost three

times that number, judging from the heavy rolling fire of musketry

incessantly directed upon them. In the morning it was discovered that

the enemy were in possession of several pits, which they had succeeded

in throwing up in spite of the strenuous attempts made to dislodge

them.

On the 25th General Canrobert sent to inform Lord Raglan that in

consequence of the information he had received of the probable arrival

of the Emperor, and of the Imperial Guard and reinforcements to the

strength of 20,000 men, he resolved not to make the assault on the 28th.

On the 26th General Bosquet's army of observation, consisting of

forty-five battalions of infantry, of two regiments of heavy dragoons,

and of two regiments of Chasseurs d'Afrique, with sixty guns, were

reviewed by General Canrobert, who was accompanied by a large and very

brilliant staff, by several English generals, and by an immense "field"

of our officers on the ridge of the plateau on which the allies were

encamped. The troops took ground from the point opposite the first

Russian battery over Inkerman to the heights above the scene of the

battle of Balaklava on the 25th of October. The ground was too limited

to contain such a body of men even in dense column, and a double wall of

battalions.

General Canrobert, his hat trimmed with ostrich plumes, his breast

covered with orders, mounted on a spirited charger, with a thick stick

under his arm, followed by a brilliant staff, his "esquire" displaying a

tricolor guidon in the air, attended by his escort and a suite of

generals, passed along the lines. The bands struck up _Partant pour la

Syrie_. The vivandières smiled their best. The golden eagles, with their

gorgeous standards, were lowered.

As soon as General Canrobert had reviewed a couple of divisions, there

was "an officers' call." The officers formed a square, General

Canrobert, riding into the centre, addressed them with much elocutionary

emphasis respecting the speedy prospect of active operations against the

place, which he indicated by the illustration, "If one wants to get into

a house, and cannot get in at the door, he must get in at the window."

[Sidenote: AN AMUSING COLLOQUY.]

The address was listened to, however, with profound silence. The General

and staff took up ground near the centre of the position, and regiment

after regiment marched past. A sullen gun from the enemy, directed

towards the nearest column from the battery over the Tchernaya, denoted

the vigilance of the Russians, but the shot fell short against the side

of the plateau. The troops--a great tide of men--the coming of each

gaudy wave heralded over the brow of the hill, crested with sparkling

bayonets, by the crash of martial music--rolled on for nearly two hours.

Chasseurs à pied, infantry of the line, Zouaves, Voltigeurs, and Arabs

passed on column after column, till the forty-five battalions of gallant

Frenchmen had marched before the eyes of him who might well be proud of

commanding them. The Chasseurs Indigènes, their swarthy faces

contrasting with their white turbans, clad in light blue, with bright

yellow facings and slashing, and clean gaiters and greaves, showed like

a bed of summer flowers; the Zouaves rushed by with the buoyant,

elastic, springing tread which reminded one of Inkerman; nor was the

soldier-like, orderly, and serviceable look of the line regiments less

worthy of commendation. Then came the roll of the artillery, and in

clouds of dust, rolling, and bumping, and jolting, the sixty guns and

their carriages had gone by. The General afterwards rode along the lines

of the Chasseurs d'Afrique, and of the two regiments of dragoons, which

went past at a quick trot. It was said that there were 2,000 horsemen in

the four regiments. They certainly seemed fit for any duty that horse

and man could be called upon to execute. The horses, though light, were

in good condition, particularly those of the Chasseurs d'Afrique. The

inspection terminated shortly after six o'clock. Each regiment, as it

defiled past the General, followed the example of the colonel, and cried

"_Vive l'Empereur!_"

Next day the General reviewed Pelissier's corps, in rear of the

trenches, and passed through the 40,000 men of which it consisted, using

much the same language as the day previously.

Up to the 27th there was no material change in the position of the

allied armies before Sebastopol, or in the attitude of the enemy within

and outside the city. Every night there was the usual expenditure of

ammunition. Nothing, indeed, was more difficult to ascertain than the

particulars of these nocturnal encounters. After a cannonade and furious

firing, which would keep a stranger in a state of intense excitement all

night, it was common to hear some such dialogue as this the following

morning:--"I say, Smith, did you hear the row last night?"

"No, what was it?"

"Oh, blazing away like fury. You don't mean to say you didn't hear it?"

"Not a sound; came up from the trenches last night, and slept like a

top."

"Hallo, Jones," (to a distinguished 'cocked hat' on horseback, riding

past,) "tell us what all the shindy was about last night."

"Shindy, was there? By Jove, yes; I think I did hear some firing--the

French and the Russians as usual, I suppose."

"No, it sounded to me as if it was in front of our right attack."

"Ah, yes--well--I suppose there was something."

Another thinks it was on the left, another somewhere else, and so the

matter ends, and rests for ever in darkness unless the _Invalide Russe_,

the _Moniteur_, or the _Gazette_ throw their prismatic rays upon it. I

need not say that all minute descriptions of charges or of the general

operations of war conducted at night are not trustworthy. Each man

fancies that the little party he is with bears the whole brunt of the

work, and does all the duty of repulsing the enemy; and any one who

takes his narrative from such sources will be sure to fall into

innumerable errors. From the batteries or from the hills behind them one

can see the flashes flickering through the darkness, and hear the shouts

of the men--but that is all--were he a combatant he would see and hear

even less than the spectator. In a day or two after the affair was over,

one might hear what really had taken place by taking infinite pains and

comparing all kinds of stories. It was, in fact, a process of

elimination. Nothing afforded finer scope to the exercise of fancy than

one of these fights in the dark--it was easy to imagine all sorts of

incidents, to conceive the mode of advance, of attack, of resistance, of

retreat, or of capture, but the recital was very inconsistent with the

facts. The generals whose tents were near the front adopted the device

of placing lines of stones radiating from a common centre towards the

principal points of the attack, so as to get an idea of the direction in

which the fire was going on at night. Even that failed to afford them

any very definite information as to the course of the fight.

CHAPTER V.

May-day in the Crimea--New Works--A tremendous Conflict--Movement

of Russians--Sorties against the French--The abortive Kertch

Expedition--Recal--The Russians repulsed--Fire from the

Batteries--Arrival of the Sardinians--Second

Expedition--Departure--Disembarkation--Capture of Kertch and

Yenikale--Depredations--Destruction--"Looting"--Return to the

Crimea.

The May-day of 1854 in the Crimea was worthy of the sweetest and

brightest May Queen ever feigned by the poets in merry England! A blue

sky, dotted with milk-white clouds, a warm, but not too hot a sun, and a

gentle breeze fanning the fluttering canvas of the wide-spread streets

of tents, here pitched on swelling mounds covered with fresh grass,

there sunk in valleys of black mould, trodden up by innumerable feet and

hoofs, and scattered broadcast over the vast plateau of the Chersonese.

It was enough to make one credulous of peace, and to listen to the

pleasant whispers of home, notwithstanding the rude interruption of the

cannon before Sebastopol. This bright sun, however, developed fever and

malaria. The reeking earth, saturated with dew and rain, poured forth

poisonous vapours, and the sad rows of mounds, covered with long lank

grass, which, rose above the soil, impregnated the air with disease. As

the atmosphere was purged of clouds and vapour, the reports of the

cannon and of the rifles became more distinct. The white houses, green

roofs, the domes and cupolas of Sebastopol stood out with tantalizing

distinctness against the sky, and the ruined suburbs and masses of

rubbish inside the Russian batteries seemed almost incorporated with the

French intrenchments.

[Sidenote: DESPERATE FIGHTING.]

A very brilliant exploit was performed by seven battalions of French

infantry, in which the 46th Regiment were particularly distinguished,

during the night and morning of the 1st and 2nd of May. The enemy,

alarmed by the rapid approaches of the French, had commenced a system of

counter approaches in front of the Bastion of the Quarantine, Central

Bastion, and Bastion du Mât, which were assuming enormous proportions.

General Pelissier demanded permission to take them. General Canrobert,

whose indecision increased every day, at last gave orders for the

assault. Three columns rushed out of the works shortly before seven

o'clock P.M. The Russians came out to meet them--a tremendous conflict

ensued, in which the French, at last, forced the Russians back into the

works, followed them, stormed the outworks of the Batterie Centrale, and

took off nine cohorns. In this affair, which lasted till two o'clock

A.M., the French had nine officers put _hors de combat_, sixty-three men

killed, and two hundred and ten wounded.

On the 2nd of May, at half-past two P.M., Russian troops, in three

divisions, each about 2,500 strong, were seen marching into Sebastopol

from the camp over the Tchernaya. A very large convoy of carts and pack

animals also entered the town in the course of the day, and an equally

numerous string of carts and horses left for the interior. The day was

so clear that one could almost see the men's faces through the glass.

The officers were well mounted, and the men marched solidly and well.

Numbers of dogs preceded and played about the line of march, and as they

passed by the numerous new batteries, at which the Russians were then

working night and day, the labourers saluted the officers and stood

gazing on the sight, just as our own artisans would stare at a body of

troops in some quiet English town.

About four o'clock P.M., it was observed by us that the enemy was

forming in column in the rear of the Bastion du Mât. A few moments

afterwards, about 2,000 men made a rush out of the Batterie Centrale,

and with a loud cheer flung themselves on the French trenches. For a

moment their numbers and impetuosity enabled them to drive the French

out of the works as far as the parallel, but not without a desperate

resistance. The smoke soon obscured the scene of the conflict from

sight, but the French could be seen advancing rapidly along the

traverses and covered ways to the front, their bayonets flashing through

the murky air in the sun. In a few moments the Russians were driven back

behind their entrenchments, which instantly opened a heavy cannonade.

Several Russian officers were taken prisoners. The enemy did not succeed

in their object. Next day there was a truce; 121 French were found on

the ground, and 156 Russians were delivered to their burial parties.

While this affair was taking place our horseraces were going on behind

Cathcart's Hill. The monotony of the siege operations was now broken.

On the 3rd of May, the 42nd, 71st, and 93rd, part of the 2nd Battalion

Rifle Brigade, two companies of Sappers and Miners, 700 of the 71st

Highland Light Infantry, one battery of Artillery, 50 of the 8th

Hussars, and the First Division of the First Corps of the French army

under D'Autemarre, sailed from Kamiesch and Balaklava; the whole force

being under the command of Sir George Brown. The fleet, consisting of

about forty sail, with these 12,000 men on board, arrived at the

rendezvous, lat. 44·54, long. 36·28, on Saturday morning. There an

express steamer, which left Kamiesch on Friday night with orders from

General Canrobert, directed the immediate return of the French, in

consequence of a communication from the Emperor at Paris, which rendered

it incumbent on him to concentrate the forces under his command in the

Chersonese. Admiral Bruat could not venture to take upon himself the

responsibility of disregarding orders so imperative and so clear, and

Admiral Lyons was not in a position to imitate the glorious disobedience

of Nelson. Lord Raglan gave permission to Sir George Brown to go on

without the French, if he thought proper, but that gallant officer did

not consider his force large enough, and would not avail himself of such

a proof of his General's confidence. This abrupt termination of an

expedition which was intended to effect important services, excited

feelings of annoyance and regret among those who expected to win honour,

glory, and position.

The expedition returned on the 5th, and the troops were landed, and we

began to hear further rumours of dissensions in our councils, and of

differences between Lord Raglan and General Canrobert. The Emperor

Napoleon had sent out a sketch of operations, to which General Canrobert

naturally attached great importance, and from which Lord Raglan

dissented. General Canrobert proposed that Lord Raglan should take the

command of the allied armies. His lordship, after some hesitation,

accepted the offer, and then proposed changes in the disposition of the

two armies, to which General Canrobert would not accede. Finding himself

thus compromised, Canrobert demanded permission from the Emperor to

resign the command of the French army, and to take charge of a division.

The Emperor acceded to the request, and General Canrobert was succeeded

by General Pelissier, in command of the French army.

On the 8th of May, General Della Marmora and 5,000 Sardinians arrived in

the Crimea, and were attached to the English army. Two or three steamers

arrived every four-and-twenty hours laden with those excellent and

soldier-like troops. They landed all ready for the field, with horses,

carts, &c. Their transport cars were simple, strongly made, covered

vehicles, not unlike a London bread-cart, painted blue, with the words

"Armata Sarda" in black letters, and the name of the regiment to the

service of which it belonged. The officers were well mounted, and every

one admired the air and carriage of the troops, more especially the

melodramatic headdress--a bandit-looking hat, with a large plume of

black cock's feathers at the side--of the "Bersaglieri."

[Illustration

PLAN

of

ODESSA.

MAP

SHEWING THE

MILITARY ROADS

& COUNTRIES

BETWEEN

ODESSA & PEREKOP.

]

[Illustration

PLAN OF THE

BRITISH CAMP

BEFORE

SEBASTOPOL.

1855.

]

About one o'clock in the morning of the 10th of May, the camp was roused

by an extremely heavy fire of musketry and repeated cheering along our

right attack. The elevated ground and ridges in front of the Third and

Fourth Divisions were soon crowded with groups of men from the tents in

the rear. It was a very dark night, for the moon had not risen, and the

sky was overcast with clouds, but the flashing of small arms, which

lighted up the front of the trenches, the yell of the Russians (which

our soldiers christened "the Inkerman screech"), the cheers of our men,

and the volume of fire, showed that a contest of no ordinary severity

was taking place. For a mile and a half the darkness was broken by

outbursts of ruddy flame and bright glittering sparks, which advanced,

receded, died out altogether, broke out fiercely in patches in

innumerable twinkles, flickered in long lines like the electric flash

along a chain, and formed for an instant craters of fire. By the time I

reached the front--about five minutes after the firing began--the fight

was raging all along the right of our position. The wind was favourable

for hearing, and the cheers of the men, their shouts, the voices of the

officers, the Russian bugles and our own, were distinctly audible. The

bugles of the Light Division and of the Second Division were sounding

the "turn out" on our right as we reached the high ground, and soon

afterwards the alarm sounded through the French camp.

[Sidenote: A TERRIFIC CANNONADE.]

The musketry, having rolled incessantly for a quarter of an hour, began

to relax. Here and there it stopped for a moment; again it burst forth.

Then came a British cheer, "Our fellows have driven them back; bravo!" A

Russian yell, a fresh burst of musketry, more cheering, a rolling volley

subsiding into spattering flashes and broken fire, a ringing hurrah from

the front followed; and then the Russian bugles sounding "the retreat,"

and our own bugles the "cease firing," and the attack was over. The

enemy were beaten, and were retiring to their earthworks; and the

batteries opened to cover their retreat. The Redan, Round Tower, Garden

and Road Batteries, aided by the ships, lighted up the air from the

muzzles of their guns. The batteries at Careening Bay and at the north

side of the harbour contributed their fire. The sky was seamed by the

red track of innumerable shells. The French, on our right, opened from

the batteries over Inkerman and from the redoubts; our own batteries

sent shot and shell in the direction of the retreating enemy. The effect

of this combined fire was very formidable to look at, but was probably

not nearly so destructive as that of the musketry. From half-past one

till three o'clock the cannonade continued, but the spectators had

retired before two o'clock, and tried to sleep as well as they might in

the midst of the thunders of the infernal turmoil. Soon after three

o'clock A.M. it began to blow and rain with great violence, and on

getting up next morning I really imagined that one of our terrible

winter days had interpolated itself into the Crimean May.

Soon after General Pelissier took the command, another expedition

against Kertch and the Russians in the Sea of Azoff was organized. The

command of the British contingent was conferred, as before, on Sir

George Brown. On Tuesday evening (May the 22nd) the _Gladiator_,

_Stromboli_, _Sidon_, _Valorous_, _Oberon_, and _Ardent_, anchored off

Balaklava. The transports, with the British on board, hauled outside.

The force consisted of 7,500 French troops, under General d'Autemarre;

of 5,000 Turks, under Redschid Pasha; of 3,805 English, under Sir George

Brown--namely, 864 Marines, Lieutenant-Colonel Holloway; 168 Artillery,

Captains Barker, Graydon, &c.; the 42nd Highlanders, Colonel Cameron,

550 strong; the 79th Regiment of Highlanders, 430 strong, Colonel

Douglas; the 93rd Highlanders, 640 strong, Lieutenant-Colonel Ainslie;

the 71st Highland Light Infantry, 721 strong, Lieutenant-Colonel Denny;

50 Sappers and Miners, and 50 of the 8th Hussars, under Colonel de

Salis. The staff numbered forty persons, and the Transport Corps 310

officers and men. A flying squadron was organized under the command of

Captain Lyons, son of the Admiral, who was on board the _Miranda_, and

consisted of the following vessels:--_Vesuvius_, Captain Osborn;

_Stromboli_, Captain Cole; _Medina_, Commander Beresford; _Ardent_,

Lieutenant-Commander Horton; _Arrow_, Lieutenant Jolliffe; _Beagle_,

Lieutenant Hewett; _Lynx_, Lieutenant Aynsley; _Snake_, Lieutenant

M'Killop; _Swallow_, Commander Crauford; _Viper_, Lieutenant Armytage;

_Wrangler_, Lieutenant Risk; and _Curlew_, Commander Lambert.

There are not many people who ever heard of Kertch or Yenikale since

their schoolboy days until this war directed all eyes to the map of the

Crimea, but these towns represented, on a small scale, those favoured

positions which nature seemed to have intended for the seat of commerce

and power, and in some measure resembled Constantinople, which is

placed, like them, on a narrow channel between two seas, whose trade it

profited by and commanded. On approaching Cape Takli Bournou, which is

the south-western corner, so to speak, of the entrance to the Straits of

Kertch, the traveller sees on his left a wide expanse of undulating

meadow land marked all along the prominent ridges with artificial

tumuli, and dotted at wide intervals with Tartar cottages and herds. The

lighthouse at the cape is a civilized European-looking edifice of white

stone, on a high land, some height above the water; and as we passed it

on the 24th of May, we could see the men in charge of it mounted in the

balcony, and surveying the proceedings of the fleet through telescopes.

On the right of the Straits, or, in other words, at the south-eastern

extremity, the coast of Taman--famed for its horses, its horsemen, and

its buckwheat--offered a varied outline of steep cliffs, or of sheets of

verdure descending to the water's edge, and the white houses and

steeples of Fanagoria could be seen in the distance. The military road

to Anapa wound along a narrow isthmus further south on the right, below

the narrow Strait of Bourgas, leading to one of the estuaries which

indented the land in all directions in this region of salt lakes,

isthmuses, and sandbanks. From Cape Takil to the land on the opposite

side of the Straits the distance is about seven miles and a half. The

country on both sides, though bright and green, had a desolate aspect,

in consequence of the absence of trees, and enclosures, but the

numberless windmills on both sides of the Strait proved the fertility of

the soil and the comfortable state of the population.

From Cape Takil to Ambalaki, where the expeditionary forces landed, the

distance was about twelve miles. It was a poor place, built on a small

cliff over the sea, which at the south side swept down to the beach by

the margin of a salt-water lake. As there was no force to oppose the

landing, the men were easily disembarked on a sandy beach, out of range

of the batteries, and close to the salt-water lake. This movement

threatened to take the Russians who were in the batteries in the rear,

and to cut off their communication with Kertch, which was situated in a

bay, concealed from the view of Ambalaki by the Cape of Ak-Bournou.

[Sidenote: AN EXCITING CHASE.]

At forty minutes past one P.M., on approaching Kara-Bournou, a huge

pillar of white smoke rushed up towards the skies, opened out like a

gigantic balloon, and then a roar like the first burst of a

thunder-storm told us that a magazine had blown up. At a quarter past

two another loud explosion took place, and a prodigious quantity of

earth was thrown into the air along with the smoke. A third magazine was

blown up at twenty-five minutes past two. A tremendous explosion, which

seemed to shake the sea and air, took place about three o'clock; and at

half-past, three several columns of smoke blending into one, and as many

explosions, the echoes of which roared and thundered away together,

announced that the Russians were destroying their last magazines. They

could be seen retreating, some over the hills behind Kertch, others

towards Yenikale.

A most exciting scene now took place towards the northward. One of the

enemy's steamers had run out of the Bay of Kertch, which was concealed

from our view by the headland, and was running for the Straits of

Yenikale. She was a low schooner-rigged craft, like a man-of-war, and it

was uncertain whether she was a government vessel or not. And, just as

she passed the cape, two Russian merchantmen slipped out and also made

towards Yenikale. A gunboat dashed after her across the shallows. At the

same moment a fine roomy schooner came bowling down with a fair breeze

from Yenikale, evidently intending to aid her consort, and, very likely,

despising the little antagonist which pursued her. The gunboat flew on

and passed the first merchantman, at which she fired a shot, by way of

making her bring-to. The forts at Kertch instantly opened, shot after

shot splashed up the water near the gunboat, which kept intrepidly on

her way. As the man-of-war schooner ran down towards the Russian

steamer, the latter gained courage, slackened her speed, and lay-to as

if to engage her enemy. A sheet of flame and smoke rushed from the

gunboat's sides, and her shot flying over the Russian, tossed up a

pillar of water far beyond her. Alarmed at this taste of her opponent's

quality, and intimation of her armament, the Russian took flight, and

the schooner wore and bore away for Yenikale again, with the gunboat

after both of them. Off the narrow straits between Yenikale and the

sandbank as the English gunboat, which had been joined by another, ran

towards them, a Russian battery opened upon her from the town. The

gunboats still dashed at their enemies, which tacked, wore, and ran in

all directions, as a couple of hawks would harry a flock of larks.

Sir Edmund Lyon sent off light steamers to reinforce the two hardy

little fellows, the French steamers also rushed to the rescue. The

batteries on the sandbank were silenced; they blew up their magazines,

and the fort at Yenikale soon followed their example.

There was a pretty strong current running at the rate of about three

miles an hour over the flats off the town of Yenikale, and the water was

almost as turbid as that of the Thames, and of a more yellow hue, as it

rushed from the Sea of Azoff. Two gunboats, carrying twelve small pieces

each, were moored off the forts of Yenikale, and there was a floating

battery close to them armed with two very heavy guns, the floor being

flush with the water, and the guns quite uncovered. One man was found

dead in the battery at Yenikale, lying, as he fell, with the match in

his hand, close to the gun he was about to fire, and two more Russians

were found dead on the beach, but they looked as if they had been killed

by the explosion of the magazine. The guns in Yenikale were new and

fine. Some of them were mounted on a curious kind of swivel--the

platforms were upon the American principle. One brass piece, which was

lying near the guard-house, was said to have been taken from the Turks

at Sinope. Two barks, armed on the main-deck with guns, and used as

transports, were resting on the sand, where they had been sunk by our

ships as they attempted to escape to the Sea of Azoff. It was suspected

that there were few regular troops in proportion to the numbers in and

about Kertch and Yenikale, and that there was a large proportion of

invalids, local militia men, and pensioners among the soldiers who made

such a feeble and inglorious defence. The appearance of our armada as it

approached must have been most formidable. The hospital, which was in

excellent order, contained sick and wounded soldiers, the former

suffering from rheumatism, the latter sent from Sebastopol. The enemy

fired the magazine close at hand without caring for these unfortunate

fellows, and every pane of glass in the windows was shattered to pieces

by the explosion. The total number of guns taken at Yenikale was about

twenty-five, of which ten were in a battery inside the old Genoese

ramparts, four in a detached battery, and eleven lying partially

dismounted about the works.

At about half-past six o'clock the batteries in the Bay of Kertch ceased

firing, and the Russians abandoned the town. Dark pillars of smoke,

tinged at the base with flame, began to shoot up all over the

hill-sides. Some of them rose from the government houses and stores of

Ambalaki, where we landed; others from isolated houses further inland;

others from stores, which the retreating Russians destroyed in their

flight. Constant explosions shook the air, and single guns sounded here

and there continuously throughout the night. Here a ship lay blazing on

a sandbank; there a farm-house in flames lighted up the sky, and

obscured the pale moon with volumes of inky smoke.

[Sidenote: A GENERAL "LOOT."]

As there was nothing to be done at sea, the ships being brought to

anchor far south of the scene of action with the gunboats, it was

resolved to land at the nearest spot, which was about one mile and a

half or two miles from Pavlovskaya Battery. A row of half a mile brought

us from our anchorage, where the ship lay, in three fathoms, to a

beautiful shelving beach, which was exposed, however, only for a few

yards, as the rich sward grew close to the brink of the tideless sea.

The water at the shore, unaffected by the current, was clear, and

abounded in fish. The land rose abruptly, at the distance of 200 yards

from the beach, to a ridge parallel to the line of the sea about 100

feet in height, and the interval between the shore and the ridge was

dotted with houses, in patches here and there, through which the French

were already running riot, breaking in doors, pursuing hens, smashing

windows--in fact, "plundering," in which they were assisted by all of

our men who could get away.

Highlanders, in little parties, sought about for water, or took a stray

peep after a "bit keepsake" in the houses on their way to the wells, but

the French were always before them, and great was the grumbling at the

comparative license allowed to our allies. The houses were clean outside

and in--whitewashed neatly, and provided with small well-glazed windows,

which were barely adequate, however, to light up the two rooms of which

each dwelling consisted, but the heavy sour smell inside was most

oppressive and disagreeable; it seemed to proceed from the bags of black

bread and vessels of fish oil which were found in every cabin. Each

dwelling had out-houses, stables for cattle, pens, bakeries, and rude

agricultural implements outside. The ploughs were admirably described by

Virgil, and a reference to _Adams's Antiquities_ will save me a world of

trouble in satisfying the curiosity of the farming interest at home.

Notwithstanding the great richness of the land, little had been done by

man to avail himself of its productiveness. I never in my life saw such

quantities of weeds or productions of such inexorable ferocity towards

pantaloons, or such eccentric flowers of huge dimensions, as the ground

outside these cottages bore. The inhabitants were evidently graziers

rather than agriculturists. Around every house were piles of a substance

like peat, which is made, we were informed, from the dung of cattle, and

is used as fuel. The cattle, however, had been all driven away. None

were taken that I saw, though the quantity which fed in the fields

around must have been very great. Poultry and ducks were, however,

captured in abundance, and a party of Chasseurs, who had taken a huge

wild-looking boar, were in high delight at their fortune, and soon

despatched and cut him up into junks with their swords. The furniture

was all smashed to pieces; the hens and ducks, captives to the bow and

spear of the Gaul, were cackling and quacking piteously as they were

carried off in bundles from their homes by Zouaves and Chasseurs. Every

house we entered was ransacked, and every cupboard had a pair of red

breeches sticking out of it, and a blue coat inside of it. Vessels of

stinking oil, bags of sour bread, casks of flour or ham, wretched

clothing, old boots, beds ripped up for treasure, the hideous pictures

of saints on panelling or paper which adorned every cottage, with lamps

suspended before them, were lying on the floors. Droles dressed

themselves in faded pieces of calico dresses or aged finery lying hid in

old drawers, and danced about the gardens. One house, which had been

occupied as a guard-house, and was marked on a board over the door "No.

7 Kardone," was a scene of especial confusion. Its inmates had evidently

fled in great disorder, for their greatcoats and uniform jackets strewed

the floors, and bags of the black bread filled every corner, as well as

an incredible quantity of old boots. A French soldier, who, in his

indignation at not finding anything of value, had with great wrath

devastated the scanty and nasty-looking furniture, was informing his

comrades outside of the atrocities which had been committed, and added,

with the most amusing air of virtue in the world, "_Ah, Messieurs,

Messieurs! ces brigands! ils ont volés tout!_" No doubt he had settled

honourably with the proprietor of a large bundle of living poultry which

hung panting over his shoulders, and which were offered to us upon very

reasonable terms. We were glad to return from a place which a soldier of

the 71st said "A Glasgae beggar wad na tak a gift o'."

In the evening the _Spitfire_ buoyed a passage past Kertch towards

Yenikale, and the _Miranda_, _Stromboli_, and gunboats ran up the newly

marked channel. Next morning (the 25th) the troops after a fatiguing

march entered Yenikale. Mr. Williams, master of the _Miranda_, buoyed a

channel into the Sea of Azoff. The allied squadrons, commanded by

Captain Lyons, _Miranda_, consisted of _Curlew_, _Swallow_, _Stromboli_,

_Vesuvius_, _Medina_, _Ardent_, _Recruit_, _Wrangler_, _Beagle_,

_Viper_, _Snake_, _Arrow_, and _Lynx_, entered the great Russian lake in

the afternoon.

Captain Lyons' squadron, in the Sea of Azoff, meantime inflicted

tremendous losses on the enemy. Within four days after the squadron

passed the Straits of Kertch they had destroyed 245 Russian vessels

employed in carrying provisions to the Russian army in the Crimea, many

of them of large size, and fully equipped and laden. Some of these ships

had been built for this specific purpose. Immense magazines of corn,

flour, and breadstuffs were destroyed at Berdiansk and Genitchi,

comprising altogether more than 7,000,000 rations, and the stores at

Taganrog were set on fire, and much corn consumed. Arabat was bombarded,

and the powder magazine blown up, but, as there were no troops on board

the vessels, and as the Russians were in force, it seemed more desirable

to Captain Lyons to urge on the pursuit of the enemy's vessels than to

stay before a place which must very soon fall into our hands. At

Berdiansk the enemy were forced to run on shore and burn four war

steamers, under the command of Rear-Admiral Wolff. At Kertch the enemy

destroyed upwards of 4,000,000lbs. of corn and 500,000lbs. of flour.

[Sidenote: A FATIGUING MARCH.]

Yenikale derives its importance from its position on a promontory close

to the entrance of the Sea of Azoff, at the northern extremity of the

Straits of Kertch. Another of the singular banks to be found in this

part of the world, shooting from the north-eastern extremity of the

Taman Peninsula, runs through the sea in a southerly and westerly

direction for seven miles and a half towards Yenikale, and contracts the

strait to the breadth of a mile and three-quarters just before it opens

into the Sea of Azoff. On this bank, which is full of salt-water

marshes, and is two or three miles broad in some places, the Russians

had a strong battery commanding the ferry station, armed with long and

heavy 36-pounders, and a number of Government buildings of a mean

description, and there were great numbers of fishing huts and curing

sheds also upon it. The town consisted of two parts--one a suburb of

houses close to the water's edge, and commanded by a ridge of high land

rising gradually from the sea. The church, a handsome building in the

Byzantine style, stood on the hill-side, in the midst of this suburb.

The other part consisted of the fort, which was formed by a quadrangular

rampart, armed at the angles with bastions and small turrets. Each side

of the square was about a quarter of a mile long. The side parallel to

the sea-wall was on the top of the ridge, into which the ground rose

gradually from the sea, and the sea-wall itself had at its base a broad

quay by the water's edge. The ridge once gained, the country extended

before one in a spacious plateau, with conical mounds and tumuli,

forming natural advanced posts for vedettes in the distance. On the land

side the ramparts were provided with embrasures, and were crenellated

for musketry; the walls, though very old, were of great solidity, and

were tolerably well preserved. Inside the enclosure were the hospital,

the Government House, the barrack, the batteries, and the stores and

magazines. One of the magazines which was blown up completely destroyed

about two hundred feet of the curtain of the work on the land side.

There were marks of ancient entrenchments outside the walls, and the

moats, ditches, covered ways, &c., very well defined.

The march from Ambalaki to Yenikale was most distressing. The heat of

the day was overpowering, and water was scanty and bad. Of 864 Marines

who landed from the fleet, four-fifths fell out on the march, the men of

that gallant corps not being accustomed to such exertions. The

Highlanders fell out in great numbers also, and the tailing off was

extraordinary, although the distance was not six miles. When the men did

arrive it was found that the tents had not come, and the soldiers were

exposed to the blaze of the sun, aggravated by scarcity of water and by

salt meat. The officers' baggage was left behind at Ambalaki, and many

of them had to lie in their clothes on the ground in a season when night

dews are heavy and dangerous. The men had their blankets; the officers

had nothing.

Immense quantities of caviare, of dried sturgeon, and of a coarse-scaled

fish like a bream, were found in every village, and were relished by our

soldiers, but they had very imperfect means of gratifying the thirst

which followed, and the stores of country wine (some of it excellent, in

spite of the adulteration of essence of roses) were nearly all drank up.

The water of the straits was brackish, and our horses, as well as the

native cattle, drank it readily, but its taste was very mawkish and

disagreeable.

As there was nothing doing at Yenikale, I took an opportunity of paying

Kertch a visit. It is only a run of some three or four miles by sea, but

the channel is very difficult. As we approached the town, long columns

of gray smoke were visible rising from the corn stores, and working

parties could be made out on the shore engaged in removing various

articles which could be turned to the account of the allies.

Sir George Brown took up his quarters in Yenikale. But the town was set

on fire in two places, and it required all the exertions of the

authorities to prevent the flames spreading and devastating the whole

place. The houses were smashed open, the furniture broken to pieces,

and "looting" and plundering were the order or the disorder of the day.

Two of the 42nd Highlanders, who were in a crowd assembled round a

house, were shot in a very extraordinary manner. A French soldier struck

at the closed door with the butt of his musket. The concussion

discharged the piece, and the ball killed one of the men on the spot,

and wounded the other severely.

The Austrian flag floated before one house, probably that of the

Imperial Consul; but the more significant standards of France and

England were waving at either end of the quay, and fluttered from

numerous boats glancing over the water. The quays were guarded by a few

sailors with drawn cutlasses stationed here and there, and with

difficulty holding their own against refractory merchantmen. In every

direction, wherever the eye turned, up or down the streets, men could be

seen hurrying away with bundles under their arms, with furniture on

their backs, or staggering under the influence of drink and bedding down

to the line of boats which were lying at the sea-wall, laden to the

thwarts with plunder. This kind of work is called by sailors "looting,"

from our Indian reminiscences. The fate of nearly every house of good

condition was soon apparent. The windows were broken, the doors smashed

open, and men went in and out like bees in a hive. All the smaller and

more valuable articles had been removed, either by the Turks or by the

Tartars, but big arm-chairs, pictures of the saints with metallic

glories round their heads, large feather-beds, card-tables, and books in

unknown tongues and type, seemed to possess a strange infatuation for

Jack, and to move him as irresistibly as horseflesh.

[Sidenote: TARTAR AND RUSSIAN BEAUTIES.]

There were plenty of Tartars in the streets, dressed in black sheepskin

cap, or white turban, with handsome jackets and wide breeches of dark

silk or fine stuff, and gaudy sashes round their waists. These fellows

were of the true Calmuck type--with bullet head, forehead villanously

low, dark, piggish, roguish, twinkling eyes, obtuse, obstinate noses,

straight lips, and globular chin. Unlike most people, they improve in

looks as they grow old, for their beards, which only attain amplitude in

age, then give a grisly dignity and patriarchal air to their faces.

Groups of men in long lank frock-coats, long waistcoats, trousers tucked

into their boots or falling down over slipshod feet, sat on the

door-steps, in aspect and attire the very image of a congregation of

seedy Puseyites, if such a thing could be imagined. Most of these men

wore caps instead of hats, their clothing was of sober snuffy hues, to

match their faces, which were sombre and dirty and sallow. Their looks

were dejected and miserable, and as an Englishman or a Frenchman came

near, they made haste to rise and to salute his mightiness with

uncovered head and obsequious noddings and gesticulations. These were

the remnants of the Russian population, but there were among them Jews,

who might have stepped on any stage amid rounds of applause, in garb and

face and aspect so truly Shylock-like were they, cringing, wily, and

spiteful, as though they had just been kicked across the Rialto; and

there was also a sprinkling of Armenians and Greeks; they were all lean

and unhappy alike, and very sorry specimens of Muscovite _bourgeoisie_.

Tartar women, scantily covered, were washing clothes in the sea, like

tamed Hecates--withered, angular, squalid, and ugly in face and form.

The Russian fair, not much more tastily clad, might be seen flitting

about with an air of awkward coquetry, mingled with apprehension and

dislike of the intruders, their heads covered with shawls, and their

bodies with bright Manchester patterns. The boys, like boys all over the

world, were merry and mischievous. They hung out of the riggings of the

vessels near, pelted the street dogs, "chivied" the cats and pigeons,

and rioted in the gutted houses and amid the open storehouses in the

highest possible spirits, or fed ravenously on dried fish and "goodies"

of various kinds, which they picked up in old drawers and boxes in the

houses torn open by the "looters." The houses were well supplied with

poultry, nor were pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, and other domestic animals

deficient. Each mansion was complete in itself; they were like those in

the older streets of Boulogne, and the interiors were furnished somewhat

in the same fashion--plenty of mirrors, and hard, inflexible, highly

varnished, unsubstantial furniture, no carpets, lots of windows

(doubled, by-the-by, to keep out the cold) and doors, and long

corridors; the windows and doors were, however, handsomely mounted with

brass work, and locks, bolts, and hinges, of great solidity, of the same

metal, were exclusively used in the better rooms. The Russian stove, as

a matter of course, was found in each apartment. Spacious vaults

underneath the houses were often used as storehouses for corn, and the

piles of empty and broken bottles marked the locality of the

wine-cellar. Icehouses were attached to many residences, and their

contents were very welcome to the ships.

The market-place is a large piece of ground of an oval shaper surrounded

by a piazza and shops and magazines of an inferior class. Most of them

were shut, and fastened up, but butchers displayed some good

English-looking beef, and the sounds of English revelry were very

distinct from the interior of a wine-shop at the end of an arcade, where

some sailors were drinking Russian champagne at 3_s._ a bottle, and

smoking cheap and nasty cigars of native manufacture. Amid the

distracting alphabetical mysteries of Cyrillus, which were stuck up on

most of these doors, where all one's knowledge of other languages led

him hopelessly astray, and where P was R, and H was N, there was

sometimes an intelligible announcement that Mdlle. So-and-so was a

_modiste_ from Paris, or that M. Brugger was a bootmaker "of the first

force" from Vienna. The greater number of the houses in the streets were

entered through a large courtyard, surrounded by the offices and

out-buildings, to which admission was gained by a _porte-cochère_. There

were baths, libraries, schools, literary associations, and academies in

Kertch of pretensions beyond its size.

All the military and civil archives of Kertch since 1824 were discovered

in a boat towed by the steamer which the _Snake_ had chased, huddled up

with the valuables of the Governor of Kertch. In general our army found

but little plunder--they had been reined tightly in; while the French

and the merchant sailors had the benefit of the pillage; but the 79th

Regiment were a little fortunate in finding at the advanced post to

which they were sent, near the Quarantine station, a considerable amount

of plate in one of the houses.

The hospital was a large, well-built, clean, and excellently ventilated

building. It was situated at the outskirts of the town, and was

surrounded by iron railings, inside which there was a plantation, which

furnished a pleasant shade from the noontide sun to the convalescents.

As we entered, some women, who were standing at the gate, retreated, and

an old man, with a good clear eye, and an honest soldierly air, came

forward to meet us with the word "Hospital," which he had learned as a

kind of safeguard and protection against intrusion. He led the way into

a dark corridor on the ground floor, on the walls of which the

regulations of the establishment (in Russian) were suspended. The wards

opened on each side of this corridor. The old man invited us to enter

the first: it was spacious and airy, but the hospital smell of wounded

men was there. Five wounded Russians and one drunken Englishman were the

occupants of the chamber. Two of the Russians had been blown up when the

magazines exploded. Their hands and heads were covered with linen

bandages, through which holes were cut for the eyes and mouth. What

could be seen of these poor wretches gave a horrible impression of their

injuries and of the pain which they were enduring, but they gave no

outward indication of their sufferings. Their scorched eyes rolled

heavily upon the visitors with a kind of listless curiosity. The other

men had been shot in various parts of the body, and had probably been

sent there from Sebastopol: in one or two I recognized the old Inkerman

type of face and expression. The bed and bedclothes were clean and good,

and at the head of each bed black tablets of wood were fixed to receive

the record of the patient's name, his disease, &c.

On reaching the street we found the people returning to the town--that

is, the Tartars were flocking back from the villages where they had been

hiding, with bundles of property, much of which they had probably stolen

from the Russian houses.

[Sidenote: GREAT DESTRUCTION OF STORES.]

As every wrecked house bore a strong family likeness to its fellow, we

entered only one or two, and then wandered through the streets, which

were almost deserted by the inhabitants during the heat of the day.

Towards evening a number of wounded Russians--forty-seven, I

believe--were brought down from Yenikale, whither they had been taken by

the gunboats from various places along the coast, and were landed on the

quay. They were subsequently sent to the hospital. The Tartar arabas and

droschkies were pressed into the service. As each wounded man passed,

the women crowded round to look at him out of the houses; but there was

more of curiosity than compassion in their looks; and they took care to

inform us they were Jews, and had no sympathy with the Muscovite. Once

they stared with wonder at the taste and inborn politeness of a French

soldier, who joined the group as a Russian was borne by on a litter.

The man's eyes were open, and as he went past he caught sight of the

Frenchman and smiled feebly, why or wherefore it is impossible for me to

say, but the Frenchman at once removed his cap, made a bow to the

"brave," and stood with uncovered head till the latter had been carried

some yards beyond him.

In the evening all the inhabitants remaining in the town flocked out of

their houses and conversed at the corners of the streets, or at

favourite gossip-posts. They were an unhealthy and by no means

well-favoured race, whether Tartars, Greeks, Jews, or Muscovites. It

must be remembered, however, that all the people of rank had fled. Some

of the tradespeople, with greater confidence in our integrity than could

have been expected, kept their shops open. In a well-fitted _apteka_ or

apothecary's shop, we got a seidlitzy imitation of soda-water, prepared

from a box, marked in English, "Improved Sodaic Powders, for Making

Soda-water;" and some of our party fitted themselves at a bootmaker's

with very excellent Wellingtons, for which they paid at their

discretion, and according to a conqueror's tariff, 15_s._ a pair; the

proprietor seemed rather apprehensive that he was not going to receive

anything at all. Indeed it would have been well if the inhabitants had

remained to guard their houses, instead of flying from them, and leaving

them shut up and locked, the very thing to provoke the plunderer.

The dockyard magazines at Kertch contained quantities of military and

naval stores--boiler plates, lathes, engineers' tools, paint, canvas,

hemp and chain cables, bales of greatcoats, uniform jackets, trowsers

and caps, knapsacks, belts, bayonets, swords, scabbards, anchors, copper

nails and bolts, implements of foundry, brass, rudder-pintles, lead, &c.

The French were busy for a few days in taking the clothing, &c., out of

the storehouses and destroying it. The valuable stores were divided

between the allies, according to their good fortune and energy in

appropriation. Numbers of old boats, of large rudders, covered with

copper and hung on brass, of small guns, of shot, shell, grape, and

canister, were lying in the dockyard. An infernal machine of curious

construction attracted a great deal of attention. Like most devices of

the kind, it had failed to be of the slightest service. Outside the

walls of the dockyard, which was filled with oxen and horses, was

another long range of public buildings and storehouses, which had been

nearly all gutted and destroyed. Soldiers' caps, belts, coats, trowsers,

cartouche-boxes, knapsacks, and canteens, were strewn all over the quay

in front of them. In a word, Kertch had ceased to be a military or naval

station, and the possession which Russia so eagerly coveted a few years

before was of no more use to her than the snows of the Tchatir Dagh.

On Friday night the work of destroying Russian stores began; the French

hurled guns into the sea, tore up the platforms, and exploded the shells

found in the magazines. Parties of boats were sent in all directions to

secure and burn prizes, to fire the storehouses and huts on the

sandbanks; by day the sky was streaked with lines of smoke, and by

night the air was illuminated by the blaze of forts, houses, magazines,

and vessels aground on the flats for miles around us.