Such is the hypothesis respecting operations from the north side; such

were the discussions which arose in the army when it had rested from its

labours and saw a vanquished enemy gathering strength in a position

which appeared impregnable or unassailable. The Russian General must

have been a man of extraordinary confidence if he thought that on the

return of spring he could have extricated his army from the grasp of an

enemy which clutched the whole of his coast, was established at two

points in his rear, and had four distinct bases of operation, with

sufficient troops to use them all, and to concentrate a prodigious force

on any point he pleased. The Russian infantry, in spite of its stubborn

endurance and passive courage, is not equal to either French, Sardinian,

English, or Turkish troops. Every day showed us that it had no chance

even against the latter when they were led and officered by Englishmen

or brave and skilful European soldiers. Their cavalry, in equal numbers,

will be ridden down like grass whenever they stand against English or

French squadrons; and notwithstanding the excellence of their artillery,

compared with other arms of their service, it cannot compete with ours

as regards rapidity of motion or precision of fire. In reference to

future operations I wrote at this time some remarks, which even now are

not uninteresting. I said:--"Prince Gortschakoff will be a grand

strategist opposed to very weak generals if he succeeds in saving his

army and marching them scatheless from the Crimea. The health of our

troops is excellent; the draughts which arrive are rather younger than

is desirable, but they will obtain experience and instruction during the

winter. They are admirably clothed, and fed as no army was ever fed

before--fresh meat, bread, and vegetables are issued to all. Henceforth

the men are to receive fresh meat _only_ three times a week, and bread

_only_ three times a week, instead of every day. On the other days they

will have pork or salt beef, and excellent biscuit. In respect of winter

clothing, hutting, and feeding, our men are immeasurably better off than

our Allies, and it is not unusual to see the latter eating in the

English camp of the excess of our soldiers' cooking kettles. Little

friendships have sprung up in this way. 'Franceese' comes over with his

spoon, a smile, an onion, and a bit of salt, or a savoury condiment, to

some sapper or grenadier, day after day, about dinner-time, indulges in

pantomimic conversation, interlarded with many 'bonos,' and regales on

good soup and broth, to the great delight of his entertainer. Thus both

are satisfied--a true _entente cordiale_ is established through the

medium of the stomach, and no one is a loser. The reinforcements to our

ally contain, like our own, many very young men, and I was particularly

struck with the youthful appearance of the men of a regiment which

arrived at Kamiesch on Monday." It is somewhat mortifying to add that

all speculations on the probable conduct of the war were rendered

abortive by the peace, which left Russia in military possession of the

north side of Sebastopol.

[Sidenote: DECORATIONS OF THE HUTS.]

Whilst the army was waiting patiently till spring should give it freedom

of action, it set itself to work to provide for the winter. The spoils

of Sebastopol materially contributed to our comfort and efficiency in

this respect. Kitchen-ranges, boilers, iron-bars, Stourbridge bricks--I

had some in a chimney built into the side of my hut, which were marked

"Harpers, Stourbridge"--ovens, brass, iron, and copper stoves, pots and

pans, flues, kettles, and hundreds of similar articles, were seized and

utilized with wonderful tact. Fine well-built cook-houses were

constructed from the cut stone of Sebastopol, which was found in large

blocks around unfinished houses or was taken from the ruined edifices

and walls about the place. Mechanical ingenuity was largely developed in

the adaption of materials. One officer converted the funnel of a small

steamer into a chimney; another used one of the pipes of an engine as a

hot-air apparatus to heat his hut; a third arranged a portion of

machinery so that he could communicate from his salon, sleeping-room,

and dining-room (three single gentlemen rolled into one), with his cook

in the adjacent kitchen, and dinner was handed through direct from the

fire to the table, after the fashion of those mysterious apparatus which

obey the behests of London waiters in the matter of roast meats, boiled

beefs, and their satellites. Many officers distinguished themselves by

the trouble they took in showing the men how to make themselves

comfortable. The number of those employed on the roads and in various

other ways rendered it difficult to get on with these works, and in many

cases the officers were unable to complete their huts for want of wood

and labour, and the unfinished walls stood in grim ruin here and there

about the camp. Wood, canvas, little bits of glass, tar and pitch, and,

above all, nails and tacks, were eagerly sought after. At the

headquarters' sale, on General Simpson's departure, a hammer, hatchet,

and saw sold for £2 15_s._ A bag of nails was disposed of by auction the

same week for 40_s._, and on counting the contents it was found there

were only 130 nails in the bag. Friendly little felonies of planking and

such things were not unheard of, and the greatest favour you could do a

friend was "to let him have a piece of board about six feet long by a

foot wide;" or "The Captain says, sir, as how he'd be very grateful if

you could give him a bit of glass about three inches square, sir, for

his winder." The heart soon grew hardened under constant pressure, and

one was at last obliged to refuse "a couple of tenpenny nails" or "the

loan of a hammer for an hour" with the sternness of a Brutus.

Pictures of saints, the erotic scripture pieces, in which the Muscovites

delight, fat Potiphar's wives and garmentless Josephs, very plump

Susannahs and very withered elders, and "subjects" of the kind, as well

as straight-backed uncomfortable arm-chairs of walnut, heavy tables, and

chests of drawers, were not uncommon in the officers' tents. Cats from

Sebastopol abounded in camp, and were very useful, inasmuch as the huts

were overrun with rats and mice, not to speak of other small deer, which

disappeared before the march of King Frost. Dogs came in from the

deserted city, and domesticated themselves, whether you would or not.

There were always an odd half-dozen about my hut and tent, which made

night hideous with their quarrels--greyhounds, mastiffs, and sheep-dogs,

and their descendants, of very mixed and indistinct types; and for two

whole days my peace was menaced by a huge double-humped Bactrian camel,

which took a fancy to the space before the door of my hut and lay there

constantly, so that our legs as we went out and in were within easy

reach of his prodigious teeth. But he was a good-natured brute, and

never attempted to bite unless one tried to mount him, when he disgorged

his food, and spat it out at the assailant or snapped his jaws at him

_in terrorem_. However, no one was sorry when he heard that the "ship of

the desert" had got under way owing to the deposit of a piece of live

coal and some matches on his back, and had sailed off on a piratical

excursion against other infidel habitations. There were, however, thefts

committed in camp more serious than those of planks or nails. Blankets

were not safe those chilly nights on horses in outlying stables, and the

regiments that came back from Kinburn found their huts broken into and

robbed on their return. The officers' furniture and clothing were gone.

On three occasions this week my horses were turned loose, and on two

they were deprived of their blankets and clothing: a spade and a hatchet

were stolen from the outside of the hut, and the thieves entered the

stables of the Land Transport Corps of the division close at hand,

turned some horses loose, and stole their blankets. Geese arrived at a

fair state of obesity, or turkeys and fowls, were not safe for a moment,

and it was almost impossible to identify the robbers.

The Sardinian officers who visited our ambulances declared that they

were superior to the French, and took much interest in the cases of

conservative surgery, which exhibited great skill and professional

knowledge. In some instances, the elbow-joint having been injured, the

surgeon made clean surfaces on the bones of the lower and upper arms,

cut away the fractured pieces, and then brought the surfaces together,

and the bones joined by a false joint, or by a sort of ligamentous

union, making a stiff short arm indeed, but with a serviceable hand

attached to it. The principle was extended to other injuries of limbs,

and was never, perhaps, adopted to such an extent in the field as it

was by our English army surgeons.

CHAPTER III.

Four Months of Winter--Situation of my Hut--Warm Clothing--Useful

Works--The Electric Telegraph--Crimean Mud again--Spirit

Vendors--Drainage--Railway Works--A Sight of the Enemy--Criticisms

by Civilians--Omar Pasha's Expedition.

There were now four months of winter before us, and the drill-sergeant

was busy all day. Every camp resounded to his voice and to the tramp of

the awkward squad. Recruits had little time to spend in idleness and

drinking, and steps were taken to provide soldiers with the means of

reading, which they so much needed and enjoyed in the long winter

nights. Why could not Government have been a little more liberal in the

matter of candles? The issue of light was one ration to every twelve

men--that is, one ration for each tent or sergeant's guard. Now, good

Public, do you know what one ration consists of? It is just _two-thirds

of an ounce_ of sperm candle, or two ounces of tallow candle--that is,

of a bit very like what economic housewives are familiar with under the

name of "save-alls." No one need ever say, "Put out the light" in a

British camp, for the candle is not lit very long before it dies of its

own accord. An officer receives the same ration as is given to twelve

men, but he can afford to buy candles, and if he is a field-officer his

rations are increased, on the principle, I suppose, that there is more

necessity for his keeping wide awake than exists in the case of a

subaltern. The libraries were well filled with books, but there was

little time to use them by day, and it fell dark before six o'clock;

twelve men were not likely to make much progress in a novel, a tract, or

an entertaining miscellany by the aid of two-thirds of an ounce of

candle. They clubbed their little pieces of candle together, and

resorted to many ingenious devices for keeping the lights in. Some of

them, like the Russian or Dutch sailors at Spitzbergen, of whose very

uncomfortable residence we all have read, used the extra fat of mutton

in lamps, but in general they were obliged to purchase what extra

candles they required. And all this time there were the canteens alight

till an hour or more after "retreat." We had "ball" at Kamiesch, which

were distinguished by remarkably good conduct on the part of all

present. There were hotels established at Kamiesch, and restaurants, at

which excellent fare was to be had at high but not extravagant prices.

[Sidenote: THE BALAKLAVA RAILWAY.]

My hut commanded a view of a considerable portion of the plateau at the

other side of the Tchernaya, and overlooked the spurs at Mackenzie's

Farm, the Russian encampments at Inkerman, and between it and the Lower

Belbek; from the windows, the movements of the enemy were plainly

visible in moderately clear weather. On the 23rd of November we observed

the whole of the enemy in motion along the plateau, and from an early

hour in the morning till two o'clock in the afternoon their battalions

were marching to and fro, but it was evident they were only changing

their troops, and that the regiments which left Mackenzie were replaced

by regiments from the camp in the rear. The new comers at the spur huts

seemed to be dressed better, to be taller men, and to wear darker coats

than those who were relieved by them, and that appearance gave rise to

the notion that the troops so close to us belonged to the Imperial

Guard. Their various camps were rapidly losing the look of snowy

neatness of canvas, and were being converted into dingy rows of huts. We

could see their telegraphs at work with the greatest facility, and I

could make out the flags with my glass. It was a pity one could not have

got the Imperial Code Book of Signals and a dictionary.

During November excellent warm clothing was issued to the men, and so

uniform was it in style that no one could distinguish officers from men,

unless by the difference of style and bearing. Our Allies were

astonished at the profuseness of our military wardrobe, which not only

contained a waterproof suit, helmet and all, but fur coats and caps,

cowhide boots, tweed coats lined with cat or rabbit skin, &c., and for

the officers, suits of sealskin, sold at moderate prices. The French

only received from their Government an ordinary cloth capote, and were

obliged to buy any waterproofs or furs which they found necessary.

The roads indeed, even then, when we had no trenches, no prospects of an

attack, no want of labour--the roads were even then objects of much

interest to us all. The whistling locomotives on the railway--the

"Alliance," the "Victory"--which recalled to us the familiar sounds of

Wolverhampton or of Swindon, and made us believe for the moment that we

were in a civilized country, were not to be taken as material guarantees

for the possession of material comforts in the coming winter. Mr.

Beatty, with small means at his command, placed the railway on an

excellent basis, as far as wood, iron, and stone could secure it.[34]

The soundness of his judgment in laying out the line was confirmed by

Mr. Doyne's adoption of a course very nearly parallel to it throughout

for the grand main road between Balaklava and the camp. Mr. Beatty was

obliged to retire from a post in which he rendered services not only to

the army collectively, but to many individuals in it, who will always

retain a deep sense of his kindness and friendly assistance in times of

domestic difficulty about huts and transports, in consequence of

ill-health, which not long after proved fatal to him.

Mr. Doyne, after careful examination, found that it would require much

less labour to make a new and good road between Balaklava and Kadikoi

by a different route, than to attempt to repair the old one while the

traffic was passing over it. Accordingly, a main drain was cut down the

centre of the valley, running into the head of Balaklava harbour, to

intercept all water flowing from the east of it, and free the road and

railway drains rapidly from the rain-water. The road was made parallel

to the railway, the material over which it passed being deep, spongy,

vegetable soil, easily drained in its natural state, but very retentive

if worked up under wet; drains four feet deep were cut at forty feet

apart, and the surface between rounded to a foot higher at the centre.

Cross-drains were cut at every forty-four yards, connecting main-drains,

and the large stone pitching, twenty-eight feet wide, was filled in with

smaller stones, and afterwards macadamized. Before laying on the

pitching, the whole traffic of the camp was turned over the formed

surface for five days to beat it down, and to consolidate it, a strong

force of navvies being employed in the morning and evening to keep up

the proper form. This course proved perfectly successful--the surface

was quite smooth when the metalling was laid on, and consequently the

rain ran freely off without penetrating the soil. On this section there

was laid down about 13,000 tons of hard limestone pitching and metalling

on a length of one mile.

From Kadikoi to the stationary engine the old road up the Vinoy ravine

was so steep (1 in 12), and thus liable to be washed away, and the

ground over which the down line was prepared to pass was so bad (in some

places 1 in 7), that Mr. Doyne determined to abandon both, and to make a

new road, round the eastern base of Frenchman's Hill, nearly parallel

with the railway, and Sir Richard Airey gave his assent to the change.

Here for a considerable distance the road was terraced out in the

hill-side, formed of hard carboniferous limestone rock, and a clear

metalled roadway was obtained from twenty to twenty-five feet wide

throughout. In the next section, to Mrs. Seacole's hut, the old French

road was widened, deep drains cut, the centre raised, and a deep coat of

limestone metalling laid on.

[Sidenote: THE DOYNE ROAD.]

In the next section, up to the Col, the ground again sloped very

rapidly, and the road was terraced out for a mile, partly in rock,

sandstone, and clay, and was then formed and metalled as before. From

Balaklava to the Col the chief difficulty to be contended with in

maintaining a road was the numerous courses of water which came down the

hill-sides. To protect the road against this, trenches were cut on the

upper side, zig-zagging according to the line of the ground, so as to

intercept the water and convey it into large culverts constructed under

the road at every dip in the undulation of the hill. Thus no water could

get upon the road except that which actually fell upon its surface, and

that small quantity was rapidly carried away into the side-drains. To

relieve a road in every way from the destructive action of water, both

by sub and surface drainage, is the first principle of road-making;

without attention to this, any amount of labour will prove fruitless.

From Balaklava to the Col, about three miles and a half, the works

throughout were of a very heavy character, and the provisions for

drainage were upon an extensive scale; besides about ten miles of open

ditching, there were between 150 and 200 culverts constructed; from the

great want of materials these were formed in every variety of way--many

with Army Works Corps' water-barrels, some with Commissariat pork-casks,

others with Royal Engineer's fascines and green platform timber.

But the work which required the greatest amount of labour was the

metalling, there having been over this three and a half miles nearly

40,000 tons of hard limestone rock quarried, collected, and laid upon

the road. Above the Col the main trunk proceeded over the plateau of

Sebastopol, following nearly the direction of the railway, crossing the

Woronzoff road up to the camp of the Light Division, on the extreme

right. Here the difficulties were of a different character, and the

surface and geographical formation changes from deep clay valleys and

plains, and carboniferous limestone rock hills, to a comparatively

uniform surface of a very plastic retentive clay; on examination, Mr.

Doyne found this did not exceed an average of eighteen inches deep, and

that underneath there is a light rubbly oolitic limestone rock, similar

to that found in the neighbourhood of Stroud, in Gloucestershire.

The whole of the clay was removed for a width of thirty-two feet, and a

solid foundation was discovered, upon which the road was securely

constructed by paving and metalling it with the parts of the oolite

rocks which had become harder by exposure to the weather, and for the

worst parts hard metal was brought from the other district. It was

opened for traffic in forty-eight days from the time of its

commencement. There was no gradient upon it worse than 1 in 17.

I ventured to express an opinion almost immediately after the capture of

the south side, that the enemy's preparations indicated the intention of

wintering where they lay. It was not because St. Vladimir was converted

in the Crimea that Prince Gortschakoff held Mackenzie's Farm and the

plateau of the Belbek and Tchernaya. But he knew that until he was

dislodged, the Allies were paralyzed, and that they could establish no

safe basis of operations against Nicholaieff or Cherson while he was at

Simpheropol, for it would be contrary to common sense to leave such an

army in their rear and flank. He hoped, therefore, either to be able to

hold the Crimea during the next campaign, or to be able to make such

dispositions in the event of a great defeat as would ensure the safe

retreat of his army to Perekop and Tchongar, and perhaps by a third

road, of the existence of which across the Sivash there were very strong

indications. The electric telegraph kindly aided him in establishing

himself all the more securely, for the rumour of a Russian attack, to

which it gave official weight, prevented the occupation of Kaffa and the

destruction of Arabat that autumn. Talk of the harm done by newspaper

correspondents compared with that which was done by the electric

telegraph! The first expedition to Kertch, the despatch of the

Highlanders to Eupatoria, and the expedition to Kaffa were all prevented

by our electric batteries at London and Paris, and it is very

questionable if they did not do the Allies more harm than the Russian

guns. The French were, indeed, adverse to the Kaffa movement, and

Admiral Bruat was, it appears, more especially opposed to it; but there

is no reason to doubt that it would have been successful, and the

occupation of that place and the destruction of Arabat would have most

materially complicated the difficulty of the Russian position, and

contributed to the strength of the Allies.

The needy knife-grinder, had he been a resident in our camp during the

last week of November, would not have been in possession of more

abundant materials for anecdote than he was when he met Mr. Canning,

several years ago, in the neighbourhood of Eton. We were all ankle-deep

in mud. Ankle-deep! No! that would have been nothing! It would have been

no great matter of complaint or grievance if we had had to deal with the

ordinary material, so familiar to all Londoners, before the scavengers

remove the formidable soft parapets which line the kerbstones after a

day or two of rain. _That_ can be scraped off, cleaned, rubbed away, or

washed out. This Crimean preparation nothing but long and persevering

efforts, continually renewed, and combining all the former operations,

could remove. It stuck in pasty clods to the shoes, and would insist on

being brought into clean huts and tents to visit your friends. It had a

great affection for straws, with which it succeeded in working itself up

into a gigantic brick, somewhat underdone, in which condition it

threatened to build your legs into the ground if you stood long enough

in one place to give it a chance; and it mightily affected horseshoes

also, and sucked them off, with a loud smack of relish, in those little

ravines between rocky hill-sides in which it exercised the greatest

influence. Literally and truly, it was like glue half boiled and spread

over the face of the earth for the depth of several feet. It was no joke

for a soldier to see his sleeping-place, in hut or tent, covered with

this nasty slime; yet they could not be kept clean. Take but one step

outside, and you were done for. The mud was lying in wait for you, and

you just carried back as much on your feet as if you had walked a mile.

Carts stuck immovably in the ground, or the wheels and axles flew into

pieces from the strain of the horses and mules.

[Sidenote: SOCIAL VULTURES.]

The waste of property as of life in war is prodigious, and much of it

seems unavoidable. I firmly believe that for three feet deep the whole

of the quay at Balaklava, near the Commissariat landing-place, was at

this time a concrete of corn. It was no uncommon thing to see a Croat or

Turkish labourer waddling slowly along with a sack on his back, from

which the corn descended in streams against his heels, till he arrived

from the ship at the store, and then to behold him depositing the

collapsed and flaccid bag on the heap with great gravity and

satisfaction at his success in diminishing his load at every step. In

the various Divisional Commissariat depôts an enormous loss of grain

occurred from similar causes, and from shifting the sacks and the

distribution of the rations. But it seemed to be impossible to prevent

these losses, which were regarded as incidental to a state of war. Our

authorities waged a war of extermination against spirit vendors, and,

above all, against rakee importers. This villanous spirit inflamed men's

brains and set them mad; it had all the abominable properties of

fresh-run rum or new whisky, but it affected the nervous system more

mischievously, and produced prostration, which frequently ended in

death. It was dreadfully cheap, colourless like gin, with a taste of bad

anisette and a fiery burning smack on the tongue, and was alcohol all

but pure, with the exception of the adulteration, which contributes the

flavour. The owners were compelled to start the poison into the sea, and

then to leave the Crimea instanter.

Every canteen-keeper or storekeeper on whose premises a drunken soldier

was seen, no matter what the excuse might be, was fined £5 for each, and

the Provost-Marshal had more money than he knew what to do with from

this source alone. But they are a wealthy race, these social

vultures--many of them king vultures--respectable birds of prey, with

kempt plumage and decent demeanour--others mere "adjutants," dirty and

predaceous. The sutlers of Kadikoi cared little for £5 fines while they

could get 6_d._ a dozen for tacks, and 2_s._ a pound for lard _sub

nomine_ butter, and they paid their taxes like lords, or rather much

more willingly, now that the income-tax is pressing on the poor

nobility. Taxes!--what is the man talking about? It is quite true,

nevertheless. There was an unchartered corporation in the town of

Kadikoi, with a Mayor and Aldermen, or Town Councillors, and a vigorous

administrative staff that would astonish the elder brethren about

Guildhall. They had a machinery of scavengers and the sewer-men, and

they paid about £120 a month for keeping their city in order. But

sutlers, and canteens, and provisions were of no use without roads, and

the word was heard of oftener, and the thing thought of more than

anything else, in the autumn of 1855.

Notwithstanding the numerous good roads through the camps, there were

exceedingly deep and heavy tracts to be traversed by thousands of

animals under their burdens. There were two men to every three horses or

mules, and it was scarcely possible for them to perform long marches,

from the divisional camps to Balaklava and back again, and afterwards to

attend to the animals and clean them properly. In some muddy pool or in

some deep scarp on the hill-side the poor animal, which perhaps stood in

uncovered stables all night, and was badly groomed, or not rubbed down

at all, sank beneath its load and died there in lingering agony. No one

was permitted to shoot these wretched creatures. I well remember the

skeleton spectre of a wretched grey horse, with a sore back, which

haunted Fourth Division camp for weeks before it fell into a ditch and

died. It had been turned loose to live or perish, and it was a shocking

sight to behold the dogs leaping up against it to lick its sores; but

there it remained for days, with its legs drawn close together, and no

one dared to put it out of pain. These spectacles recalled the terrors

of the previous winter. Every one exclaimed, "How fortunate that

Sebastopol has fallen! What should we have done had we to guard the

trenches this winter!" Not that there could have been an equal amount

of physical suffering, but that there would have been a great deal of

unavoidable misery, and disease, and death incident on another winter's

active operations, despite railroads, depôts, roads, warm clothing, and

abundant food. It must not be supposed that there are no inconveniences

in living in the open air during a Crimean winter. A bed with a lively

little sewer intersecting it is not the most agreeable thing in winter

time; but the camp view of such a catastrophe is that "it serves them

right for not pitching their tents better." At the same time there were

loud outcries against the new huts, and the letters "O.L.B.," with which

they were marked, were said to mean "Officers' Leaky Bunks." It is

considered that if the Government had sent out hammers, nails, planks,

and felt, the men would have done much better. Early in December the

siege artillery was ordered home--and the batteries were filled up to

their full complement. The staff officers of the train returned to

Woolwich.

CHAPTER IV.

A second Christmas in the Crimea--Festivities--Strength of the

Russian Army in the Crimea--Exhaustion--Camp Followers--Stirring

Incidents--Harbour Discipline--Russian Fire--Order of

Merit--Destruction of the Docks--Plan of Proceeding--Grand Review

of English Troops--Splendid Appearance of the Men.

[Sidenote: THE SECOND CHRISTMAS.]

The monotony of life in the huge military colony before Sebastopol was

broken slightly by the appearance of the Russians on the heights of

Ourkousta, and by some demonstrations of an intention on their part to

try the strength of the French positions in the Baidar Valley. As the

French retired in the presence of winter, the enemy threw forward their

advanced posts at Koluluz and Markul to the north-east, and from Aitodor

and Ozembash to the north of Baidar. On Sunday morning, the 9th of

December, the Russians, with their feline aptitude for surprises, crept

round the little village of Baga in the dark, and just at the dawn

rushed in upon the small party of the French which occupied it. For a

time the surprise was complete; but our gallant allies soon got

together, and after a smart fusillade, drove out the enemy at the point

of the bayonet. The Russians had many horsemen with them. In the pursuit

of the Cossacks our Allies managed to capture some forty horses, for the

former gentry fled by a road which in old times was good enough for a

run, but they were astonished to find themselves stopped by a deep scarp

at a pretty spot, where a wall of rock closed the road at the right-hand

side, and a precipice formed the left-hand boundary, so they had nothing

for it but to dismount and scramble across, leaving the horses,

accoutrements and all, to their fate. In this affair the French had 1

officer mortally wounded, 7 men killed, and 13 wounded, and the Russians

left 70 dead on the ground, and 20 men prisoners in the hands of the

French.

On Monday, December 10, a High Mass, at which many English officers

attended, was performed on board the French flagship for the soul of

Admiral Bruat. The decease of the Admiral was heard of by our navy with

sincere regret.

About the same time we heard of the fall of Kars. Criticism on military

matters by civilians is worthless when the questions agitated relate to

the details of manoeuvres or to pure strategy, but military men cannot

expect to be exempted from the criticism of civilians on general

questions relative to the conduct of the war. Captain Smith may have his

Grenadier company in perfect order and discipline, and may lead them

with the greatest gallantry; but the civilian who from some eminence

sees Captain Smith taking his men into broken ground, filled with

riflemen or swept with grape, where their order and discipline are of

little service to them, is entitled to exclaim, "What a fool that fellow

is!" When Kars had fallen, every one said, "What the deuce were Omar

Pasha and his Turks doing so long at Baidar, or encamped on the tumuli

overlooking the plains of Balaklava and the English head-quarters? Of

what use were they perpetually _in transitu_ between Eupatoria and the

Col of Balaklava, or on the tramp between Kamara and Phoros? Why was

Kars allowed to fall, and why was Omar Pasha sent to Asia Minor so late

in the year?" The defence of Kars was honourable, but so was the defence

of Sebastopol, and Kars was not less Russian because it was won by so

much of their best blood. The Turks, indeed (according to the testimony

of all acquainted with them), were most miserably mismanaged and badly

handled, and no use was made of them except to garrison Eupatoria, which

they would have been able to do with at most half of their army. Thus

the remaining half might have been set free for active operations.

Although the fate of Kars could not materially influence the result of

the struggle in the Crimea, active operations directed against the enemy

from Kars might, in the opinion of most excellent judges, have produced

very considerable results on the calculations of the next campaign, and

on the prospects of the war. But the fall of Kars produced no

surprise--the wonder rather seemed to be that it held out so long, and

every one admitted that he had a secret presentiment that the city must,

sooner or later, fall into the hands of the Russians. Every one who knew

the country felt persuaded that Omar Pasha's expedition set out too

late, and yet we all fell into ecstasies at the passage of the Ingour,

and talked of the march on Kutais as if these things could save Kars,

and no one cared to look at the map or consider the chances of such a

result.

The winter at last set in, but cold and frost had lost their terrors for

the army then. There is an old saying, that "a green Christmas makes a

full churchyard," and it might have been realized, inasmuch as the

cholera appeared in the Highland regiments--notable sufferers in

epidemics of the kind--and some cases occurred in other regiments,

before the thermometer fell below freezing-point. On Tuesday forenoon

(Dec. 11th) the thermometer was at 55°; on Wednesday (Dec. 12th) it was

50°; on Thursday (Dec. 13th) it fell to 28°; on Friday (Dec. 14th) it

was 22°; on the 15th it marked 20° Fahrenheit. With moderate exercise,

hard ground, good footing, good feeding, warm clothing, and occupation,

there was little reason to entertain any apprehension for the troops

during the winter. It must be stated, however, that the complaints

against the new huts were numerous and well founded, and during the wet

weather it was seriously proposed to remove the men, and put them into

double tents. They never were intended, I presume, to keep out water

without some felt or waterproof covering, and none had been provided:

not even the tar and pitch in one of the vessels at Balaklava could be

landed. Still this promised to be a joyous Christmas. Solitary

subalterns rode out to Miskomia, and gazed gloomily on the beautiful

mistletoe which grows on all the wild pear and apple trees in these

lovely valleys. Their contentment returned when they thought of the fat

goose, which, tied by the leg, was waiting his doom by the kitchen tent

or bakehouse, or of the tender pig, which had been reared up from his

childhood for the sole object of doing honour to the coming feast, and

was "just fit to be killed."

Contrasts were drawn between dinners in the trenches, on dreary

outposts, on remote guards and pickets the year before, and the luxuries

which were then forthcoming for the grand English festival. Men

remembered "that tough old turkey, which cost 40_s._, and that turned

the edge of the carver like plate glass," and laughed over the fate

which seemed somehow to attend most efforts to be jolly that Christmas,

and then turned and looked round their huts, which generally, it must be

confessed, were very like retail grocers' establishments, backwood

stores, or canteen-men's magazines. The shelves placed along the walls

in layers, the cupboards made of packing-cases or powder boxes, filled

with _pâtés_ in Strasburgh ware, hams, tins of soups and preserves, made

dishes, vegetables, long-necked bottles of French manufacture, and the

stumpier sturdier work of the English glass-blower. There was a stove or

some substitute for a fireplace in each hut, which always enjoyed the

advantage of a famous draught from the door and walls. As to the latter,

the embellishments upon them whiled away many an idle hour, and afforded

opportunities for the exercise of taste, good and bad, the monuments of

which perished with the spring. They consisted chiefly of illustrations

from the pictorial papers and _Punch_, transposed ingeniously by the

introduction of faces, figures, and bits of different engravings, with

the view of giving them a ludicrous or whimsical character, and the

result was often very amusing. The walls were covered with them; a

pastepot, a pair of scissors, some old papers, and a little fancy--these

were materials of which a man could make wonderful use in enlivening and

decorating the wooden walls of his temporary residence.

[Sidenote: NEW BALAKLAVA.]

On the night of the 12th of December, the storm howled and raged

fearfully over the camp, and brought a deluge of rain, which it

discharged in water-spouts, driving it through huts and tents, and

forcing it in streams through the minutest interstices. The gusts were

extremely violent, and the beating of the rain kept many a one awake

with only one topic of consolation, namely, that there was "No trench

guard to-night." Until four o'clock the wind seemed to come from the

south-west, but at that hour it veered round towards the north, and

became bitterly cold. All at once the rain was converted into hail and

snow; the wet ground began to freeze; and at eight o'clock, by one of

those magical changes which can only be equalled by the chymical

landscapes of our childhood, the whole camp, which, at sundown the night

before, was an expanse of blackish mud, dotted with white tents and

huts, became a sheet of dazzling white, marked with lines of dusky,

greyish habitations of canvas and wood. The wind was exceedingly cold

and penetrating. The unfortunate natives of Southern Europe or of Asia,

employed in such myriads in the service of the army, suffered greatly on

such occasions, and perished like flies in frost. The huge swarm of

camp-followers, who, to the number of some ten thousand, hovered about

the canteens and round Balaklava, Kadikoi, and the fairs, also felt the

effects of this weather.

There were not less than 25,000 camp followers, including those of the

French, Sardinians, and English, belonging to the Allied army, or

hanging on their skirts. In the pursuit of gain, most of these people

exposed themselves to considerable hardships and privations. How they

provided fodder for the beasts they drove was one of the secrets of

their peculiar existence, and the variety of vehicles belonging to these

Bashi-Bazouks of trade and commerce constituted a curious detail of the

wonders of the camp. One might witness the incidents of the scenes of

the last year repeated in the winter of '55. I saw an old Turk in a

moribund state carried into Balaklava on the back of a native almost as

wretched-looking as himself; and riding on to the Land Transport camp,

between Kadikoi and the Col, I beheld a native bearing in the same way a

living skeleton from one tent into another. These men were provided by

Government with long Turkish gregos, but, somehow or other, exposure to

bad weather produced disastrous results upon them, although their frames

seemed very vigorous. I am afraid the Temperance Society won't forgive

me if I express a private opinion that a little stimulant might have

been "exhibited" on these poor fellows, who ate largely of vegetables,

and were saturated with onions, garlic, and leeks; and that, under the

circumstances, they might, without injury, have partaken of a moderate

quantity of spirits. If I am not mistaken, Sir Philip Crampton is of

opinion that so long as the Irish are a potatophagous race, a

predilection for whisky will be found among them, in obedience to a

secret sympathy of nature, which seeks an ally in alcohol against the

effects of her esculent enemy. I do not know for certain that the

gallant Surgeon-General ever expressed that opinion, nor would I invoke

teetotal wrath and water on his head by saying so; and I beg to

disclaim, also, the smallest intention of theorizing, for I think of the

Hindoos and rice, of Yankee whalers and hot coffee, and I tremble and am

silent. Sometimes a very pretty little rebellion sprang up among the

native drivers of the Land Transport Corps of the Fourth Division. They

would not stir, in spite of eloquent exhortations in the best

Hindostanee addressed to them by Captain Dick, who, standing knee-deep

in snow and mud, harangued them as they lay inside their tents. They

"sahibbed" away and shrugged their shoulders, and plaintively expressed

a decided desire to be flogged, accompanied by suggestions also that

they should be at once executed; but they one and all declared that work

they would not on such a raw and gusty day.

The discipline of the harbour was strict, but it sometimes happened that

unruly Turks or Greeks ran their vessels right in slap-dash among the

shipping, neither comprehending signals nor regulations. The order of

mooring was preserved strictly by English ships. The vessels lay with

sterns to the quay, in three rows, the inner line consisting of ships

with cargoes of first necessity, and so on; the large ships in deep

water at the Diamond Wharf, higher up the harbour on the western side.

The Sardinians had a portion of the harbour near the cattle wharf, and

the French a reserved quay close to them. With its forest of masts

closely packed together--its wall-like sides of rock--its wooden

houses--its railway--its parti-coloured population--its Babel of

tongues--its huge mountains of stores piled for many feet high by the

water's edge--its tremendous traffic--its mud--its locomotive whistling

through the main street, and regarded by the rude Tartar from distant

holes as a wild beast of inconceivable power and ferocity--and its

picturesque old ruins, Balaklava was well worth a visit. By the bye, any

antiquary desirous of seeing the castle ought to have gone out quickly;

it was undergoing demolition fast, and the work of the Genoese was from

time to time being transferred to the holds of merchantmen in the

ignoble form of "ballast!" It is lucky, perhaps, that the Piræus was not

the scene of our operations, for in that case the Acropolis in a

fragmentary state might have been _en route_ for Newcastle, as the

centre of gravity of the _Black Diamond_ transport, and the Parthenon

might have been employed to trim the _John Smith_ of London. But, if we

destroyed, so did we create. A splendid military road from Balaklava to

the front, with numerous branches and arms, was no bad equivalent for

the walls of a ruined fortress.

[Sidenote: DESTRUCTION OF THE DOCKS.]

The air was full of drumming and fifing and trumpeting. The regiments

were getting up their bands again, and the exertion was generally

distressing to the neighbourhood; but there was no use in writing to the

_Times_ on the subject. It was, however, irritating to the last degree

to be surrounded by drummers, who were sent to my part of the camp as a

favourable spot for practice, and I was compelled for hours to be the

unwilling auditor of first lessons on the bugle and French horn. The

French were indefatigable at this work. Every one recollects the three

little drummers who were always "dubbing" away like mad on that little

spot at Capecure, near the south pier of Boulogne. They were out in the

Crimea multiplied exceedingly, and as active in elbow and wrist as ever.

It would be a curious subject for the statist to ascertain when the

French drummer is perfect in his art. As far as I can perceive, he must

be a tolerably elderly man before he leaves off practice, and can only

be enjoyed in perfection for a very brief period before he retires from

the service altogether.

The Russians kept up a pertinacious fire upon the town. Sebastopol was a

disagreeable place to go to on pleasure, for shot and shell were

continually lobbing along the streets, houses falling piecemeal, and

stones flying about from the shock of cannon-balls. The casualties,

however, were very few, and the French displayed great ingenuity in

erecting comfortable magazines and shops in out-of-the-way parts of the

town, where one could get a cup of coffee and a cigar without much

danger. But to the uninitiated the roar of a ball and the twittering

hiss of a shell fail to give zest to these luxuries. It was no longer an

occurrence of every week to go down to Sebastopol, and few people

resorted to the docks unless they were on duty, or had just come out,

and were under the painful necessity of going _en amateur_. The whole

establishment of a _cantinière_ went smash one day through the operation

of a shell, and, although it was tolerably well filled, the only damage

done was to the poor proprietress, who lost her hand and an immense

amount of crockery, comestibles, and customers.

Writing under the date December 13, I said, "It is to be hoped that if

an Order of Merit be established, it will bear the name of the Queen in

whose reign it was instituted, and with the signification of whose royal

prænomen it would so thoroughly harmonize. There is a strong desire that

bronze crosses should be prepared bearing inscriptions relating to the

number of bombardments, so that each man should bear a distinctive mark

of the amount of trench-duty he has done. When Kenealy, one of the

privates of the 41st who entered the Redan with Major-General Windham,

was asked whether he would have the £5 or a decoration, he replied he

would much sooner have the latter; and this feeling is shared by all

good soldiers: whereas, the notion with the home authorities seemed to

be, that money was more welcome than anything else."

The frost continued, and on December 14 the thermometer marked 22°, but

there was a clear fine sky and a bright sun above. The mud became a

rigid furrowed lake, with iron waves cast up by old cart-tracks and

horses' hoofs, and the roads were crowded and blocked up by the vast

numbers of _fourgons_, carts, horses, and pack animals so suddenly

forced upon them.

The destruction of the far-famed docks of Sebastopol was an event in the

annals of military engineering. A regular diary of the operations was

kept by the officers engaged, and this, should it ever be published,

cannot fail to be most interesting. War has stern necessities, but there

was something lamentable in seeing such great and magnificent works as

these docks were, thus pitilessly destroyed. It may give some idea of

the labour necessary to reconstruct these docks, to say that after

clearing away the ponderous ruins it would be necessary to dig down some

twenty feet below the original bottom--so much has the earth been

disturbed by the successive explosions--to drive piles and use concrete,

and form an entirely new foundation.

During the latter part of December the weather was extremely cold, but

all that month and the following January preparations were urged forward

for the destruction of the docks of Sebastopol. Although to most persons

the general aspect of these docks has probably become well known from

descriptions and drawings, I will briefly explain their position and

arrangement. They extended nearly due north and south (a little to the

east of north and west of south), and consisted of three inner docks, a

basin, and two outer docks, with a lock between them. The French

undertook the destruction of the outer docks, the lock, and the northern

half of the basin; the English that of the inner docks and the southern

half of the basin. The lock, although capacious, was easier to destroy

than a dock, its circumference being a plain stone wall, instead of

heavy stone steps fit for a giant's staircase. The French did their

share of the work very effectually. For various reasons the English

works were more gradual in their progress, but were not less thoroughly

carried out, and, if a non-professional but highly-interested observer

might express an opinion, they did great credit to the scientific skill

of the engineers to whom they were entrusted. I believe the first idea

was to blow up the whole at once, which would probably have given a more

picturesque appearance, and have produced a more thorough ruin. But this

plan was abandoned by reason of the dampness of the ground. Water flowed

in from the ravine in the rear of the docks, and rose in the shafts of

the mines. It is probable that, had the engineers waited to explode the

numerous mines until all of them were complete, the powder would have

become damp in many of them, and would not have ignited; so it was

resolved to blow up a little at a time. It was difficult for any one who

has not seen these docks both before and after their destruction, fully

to appreciate the magnitude of the operations, and the force that must

have been applied to root up and utterly overthrow such massive

constructions, such huge blocks of granite so firmly cemented, such

mighty timbers, which now lie snapped asunder like reeds or rent into

huge splinters.

[Sidenote: DESTRUCTION OF THE DOCKS.]

There were probably two reasons for the care with which the engineers

measured their charges. One, that by leaving the docks encumbered and

filled up with their own ruins they bequeathed a harder task to any

future rebuilder than if they scattered the stone linings far and wide,

and left the chasms comparatively clear. The second reason, that by more

violent explosions they would probably have shaken down buildings,

overthrown the dockyard wall (which already totters and loses stones

from its summit when a mine is let off), and perhaps caused accidents.

The Russians fired a great deal at times, but although their fire was

occasionally accurate enough, shell after shell falling into the docks,

they caused little loss. Of accidents occurring from the explosions, one

was of a peculiar nature. The explosion by the dock-gate had taken

place, and some sappers were busy at the bottom of a shaft forty or

fifty feet off, when a noxious gas, generated by the explosion, entered

the gallery, filtering through the intervening earth. The effect was

gradual--one after another the men became giddy, and some of them

insensible. With infinite alacrity and courage non-commissioned officers

and soldiers descended the shaft, braving a danger which seemed the

greater because its extent and nature were unknown, to succour their

comrades, and as they got down they in turn were overpowered by the

offensive gas. Major Nicholson and Lieutenant Graham also went down, and

suffered in consequence. The former was insensible, when, supported by

his men, he reached the top of the shaft, and it was some time before he

recovered. To sum up the accident: one man perished, and seven or eight

were seriously affected, but recovered. A man went down into the mine

after the accident, holding in his mouth the extremity of a tube down

which air was pumped to him, and he walked about with perfect impunity,

and collected the men's caps and things they had left behind.

The quantity of powder used in the explosion of Fort Nicholas was 50,000

kilogrammes, or 100,000 French pounds. Double that quantity was found

under the fort when the engineers commenced their operations. This was

not the only concealed store of powder the French discovered in their

part of Sebastopol. The intention was that all the mines should explode

simultaneously, and that they did not do so was attributable to some

fault in Beckford's fuse, known among the French as _le cordon Anglais_.

The effect, however, was very fine, and nothing could be more complete

than the destruction. The operations against the docks may be said to

have commenced at the end of November, for although a beginning was made

at an earlier period, the works were quickly suspended, and resumed only

at the above date. The French did their work in four explosions; the

English had six, besides minor ones of small extent.

Fort Alexander was blown up, in three explosions, at one o'clock on

February 11th. The destruction was complete, but the place did not look

such a perfect level as the site of Fort Nicholas, and the sea face was

intentionally left standing. The day was dry, but not bright, and the

absence of sun detracted from the striking nature of the spectacle,

which was, however, sufficiently imposing, but not equal to that of Fort

Nicholas's downfall. The Russians, who had been firing a little from the

Inkerman Batteries just before the fort blew up, were perfectly silent

for some time after the explosion, apparently thinking it more dignified

to contemplate the destruction of their fortresses calmly than to

exhibit impotent wrath and to expend their ammunition unprofitably. At a

later period of the day they fired more than usual from the north side.

A stroll about the environs of Sebastopol, and the sight of the

enormous cannon-balls and fragments of monster shells that strew the

ground in all directions, impressed one with a respectful idea of the

power of powder; but the respect was vastly increased by a view of the

havoc it played in such stupendous works as the docks--structures formed

to last for ages, and to the duration of which no limit could be

assigned. The difficulty of destruction was enhanced in the case of the

docks allotted to the English by the fact that these were in part hewn

out of solid rock. The basin thus formed was lined with huge masses of

stone, and between rock and stone earth was filled in. The engineers

availed themselves of the soft interval for their mines, and blew the

walls and counterforts inwards, but the rock remains, marking in places

the outline of the docks. The counterforts were of prodigious strength

and thickness. Then there was a deep covered drain outside the docks,

for the purpose of emptying them when desired, of which the engineers,

of course, made use. Greatly incommoded at first by the water that

flowed down the ravine in their rear, they overcame this difficulty at

no small expense of labour. Their mode of operating against the docks

varied according to circumstances, but seems to have consisted in a

great measure of regular mines, with shaft and gallery. Two of these

shafts down which I looked were about thirty feet deep. The engineers

had blown up the eastern pier, or extremity of that side of the dock, to

which a gate was attached--one of the jaws of the dock; and this

explosion seems to have been as complete in its effect as any that have

taken place. The huge mass was lifted up and dislocated, and the

enormous transverse beams, masses of black timber of incalculable

strength, were torn from their fastenings, snapped in twain, and

remained with their splintered ends resting against each other, in the

shape of a house-roof. Below the pointed arch thus formed was a black

chasm, and heaped around, piles of stone and dusty ruins. Everything was

removed and riven without being scattered; and this was the object at

which our engineers constantly aimed. They sought all along, and

generally with much success, so to proportion the charges of their mines

that, while everything should be overturned, rooted out, and thrown into

the utmost confusion (literally topsyturvy), as little as possible

should be thrown out of the crater. And accordingly most of their

explosions had not the appearance which would popularly be anticipated

from the letting off of two, three, or more thousand pounds of powder.

There was no diverging gush of stones, but a sort of rumbling convulsion

of the ground; a few blocks and fragments were cast up to a moderate

height, but the effect upon the spectator was that of some gigantic

subterranean hand just pushing the masses a short distance out of their

places, turning them upside down, and rolling them over each other in a

cloud of smoke and dust.

[Sidenote: GRAND REVIEW.]

On the 25th of February 25,000 of our infantry were there assembled for

inspection and review by the Commander-in-Chief, and the bayonets of

forty-six British battalions bristled upon Telegraph Hill, overlooking

the valley of the Tchernaya. The morning was so cold, that some who

impatiently awaited the spectacle feared it would be again postponed,

but the earth and air were dry, and after church service the divisions

were seen marching from their camps in the direction of the

parade-ground. As the troops marched up, the pioneers busied themselves

with filling the small circular trenches where tents had formerly stood;

and, when the review was over, the whole surface had been trodden by

hoof and foot as level as a bowling-green.

Those English officers, of various arms and departments, whom duty did

not call out or keep in, flocked in hundreds to witness the review of a

larger number of British troops than has been held for forty years.

There was every variety of French and Sardinian and even Spanish

uniform. Marshal Pelissier came on the ground in his carriage and four,

by which is not to be understood a handsome vehicle and showy team, with

well-kept harness and neat postilions--but a very rough, nearly

paintless drag, with harness partly of rope, horses that matched the

carriage as regards roughness, and soldiers in artillery saddles on the

near wheeler and leader. His little escort of Chasseurs contrasted with

the English Hussars who followed Sir William Codrington. Marshal

Pelissier alighted from his carriage, and took his station at the foot

of a hillock, opposite the centre of the line, of the whole of which he

then commanded a good view. The array of the troops was nearly completed

when a shell was seen to burst high in the air above the valley of the

Tchernaya. Our Russian friends politely informed us that they were

present and attentive, reckoning that we should see their messenger,

though they could not expect him to reach us.

The line was formed in continuous columns of companies, with intervals

of six paces between each regiment. Its face was towards the Russian

positions beyond the valley. On the right were the Guards and the

regiments forming the First Division; then came the Highlanders; then

the Second, Third, and Fourth Divisions; and finally the Light Division.

When the inspection was completed, General Codrington took up his

station in front, to the right of the knoll where Marshal Pelissier was

posted, and the troops marched past in open column. The Guards came by,

of course with their own favourite tune, "The British Grenadiers;" the

pipes of the Highlanders squeaked, squealed, and droned forth that

strange combination of sounds so dear to Scotch ears, and so discordant

to those of Saxon or Gaul; one brigade marched on to "Partant pour la

Syrie," in compliment to the French.

The Second Brigade of the Fourth Division had one of the best bands, and

played a spirited march, but, generally speaking, the music of this army

had not recovered the losses of the war. The troops marched past in

front of the ground on which they had just stood in line. The morning

had been grey and dull up to the commencement of the review, but the

clouds then grew thinner and dispersed a little, and a few fitful gleams

of sunshine shone upon British legions as they descended the slope in

most perfect order, a broad steady torrent of bayonets, not rapid but

irresistible. A finer military sight could hardly be seen than was

presented by that matchless infantry. The healthy appearance of the men

testified to good keep and much care taken of them; their soldierly

carriage and perfect dressing proved that their officers had profited by

the unusually fine and open winter to hasten the military education of

the numerous recruits.

The Rifles were much praised by the foreign officers. Many were the

tattered and shot-rent banners borne by. The colours of the 23rd

Fusiliers were like a sieve, pierced with countless bullets, and telling

the eloquent and bloody tale of the Alma and of Inkerman. Those of the

77th and 97th were much riddled, and many regiments were fain to keep

their banners furled, their torn condition not allowing of their display

to the breeze. The whole of the troops having marched past in open

column, formed up at some distance to the north of Telegraph Hill, on

lower ground, nearer to the camp, and thither General Codrington

proceeded. People were chilled with sitting still on their horses, and

delighted to get a canter; the ground was good, the air fresh, the

opportunity tempting, and away went high mettled English chargers, fleet

Arabs, and tough Turkish and Tartar ponies at a smart pace. The field

was a large one, and two or three small ditches towards the end of the

course gave animation to the chase, until at last the General was run to

earth, hard by where sat the French Marshal in his carriage, and all

passed up to witness the second _défilé_, which was in close column.

After this the divisions marched straight away to their various camps,

and the country on all sides was seen thickly sprinkled with horsemen

cantering homewards, bent, in most cases, on taking to themselves

something of a warming nature, for the cold had really been sharp, and

no speculative canteen-man had thought of sending emissaries with

well-lined baskets to the scene of the review.

When all was over, Marshal Pelissier went up to General Codrington, and

complimented him in the highest terms on the appearance of his troops.

The numbers on parade would have been considerably larger had the whole

of our effective infantry turned out, but General Warren's brigade,

stationed at Balaklava, was not ordered up, neither were the 72nd

Highlanders and the two battalions of the 1st Royals, which were

encamped some way beyond Kamara; and then there was the garrison of

Sebastopol, and the Redan picket, camp guards, &c.; so that, altogether,

there were many battalions and parts of battalions absent. It was purely

an infantry review--no artillery, nor cavalry, save the handful of

Hussars employed in escorting the General and keeping the ground.

[Sidenote: DELAY AND DISAPPOINTMENT.]

CHAPTER V.

News of an Armistice--Destruction of the White Buildings--The

Explosion--A lively and novel Scene at Traktir

Bridge--Fraternization--The Cossacks--Meeting of the

Generals--Death of Major Ranken--The Armistice finally

settled--Ruin of Sebastopol--Can it rise again?--Visits to the

Tchernaya--Discussions on Army Matters--System of Purchase--Pros

and Cons.

The Morning of February 28th brought us news of the conclusion of an

armistice. The Russians had it first, by telegraph from St. Petersburg,

and the mail from Constantinople brought its confirmation to the Allies.

At 8 A.M. a boat, bearing a flag of truce, put off from the north side,

and was met half-way across the harbour by one from the French. The

Russians brought a communication from General Lüders. As if to celebrate

the armistice, the so-called White Buildings were blown up in the

afternoon. Soon after three o'clock, spectators began to assemble at the

Redan, in front of Picket-house Hill, on Cathcart's Hill, and in other

commanding positions. There was not a very strong muster at any of these

places, for we were rather _blasé_ in the matter of explosions; and,

although the day was bright and sunny, the ground was very heavy with

mud and snow, and the cold too sharp to be pleasant. There was a certain

amount of snowballing among the pedestrians, which doubtless contributed

to keep up a supply of caloric, and one or two base attacks were made

upon unfortunate equestrians, who, not having snow within their reach,

or a supply of ready-made snowballs in their pockets, had no choice but

to charge their assailants or resort to ignominious flight. Half an hour

passed; feet were very cold, noses very blue, fingers hardly felt the

reins, grumbling was heard: "It is nearly four o'clock; why the deuce

doesn't it go off?" Patience, I fear, was not a very common virtue in

the Crimean army. An impromptu "shave," suggested by the circumstances

of the moment, was passed about. "Pelissier is coming; they wait for

him."

Now it so happened that Pelissier was _not_ coming. The armistice gave

him something to do and think of, and moreover, he had been disappointed

a few days before, when it had been notified to him that the White

Buildings were to be blown up. So he no longer put his faith in the

unpunctual engineers of perfidious Albion. Some French and other foreign

officers came, waiting patiently and confidingly in the Redan, and in

front of Picket-house Hill, just over the ravine. Another half-hour

passed. A quarter-past four, and no explosion. Strong language began to

be used; wishes were uttered, the fulfilment of which would certainly

not be desired by the engineers, at whose door, rightly or wrongly, the

delay was laid. The third half-hour had not quite elapsed when the

report spread that the explosion was "put off." According to some

accounts, it would occur in an hour and a half; according to others,

next day, while a third party talked of the next week; there was a

general movement campwards. A few Artillery officers still stuck to the

Redan; Picket-house Hill was quickly cleared, except of one or two

obstinate expectants, Cathcart's Hill was abandoned by many. Just at a

quarter to five, when few of the weary who had departed could have

reached their quarters, and some could have been but a hundred or two

yards on the wrong side of the hill-crests, out gushed a small puff of

white smoke from the White Buildings--then came a big puff of black

smoke. There was a slight explosion, a grumbling roar; stones were

hurled into the air and pitched high over the eastern wall into the

docks, and after a silence which seemed to last nearly a minute, came a

series of pops and puffs as mines went off in rapid succession, an

immense volume of smoke appeared, not in dense sluggish masses slowly

surging up, as at the explosion of Fort Nicholas, but in a thinner

cloud, which rose so high that the summit of the murky column was

visible over Picket-house Hill to persons some way down the Woronzoff

Road, where it passed through the Light Division camp. After the

explosions of the buildings, Fort Constantine sent a solitary shell into

the French side, so the armistice was not considered to be perfect until

after the conference.

Major George Ranken, of the Royal Engineers, was killed at the explosion

of the White Buildings. A mine having failed to explode, Major Ranken

sent his men to a distance and entered the place to renew the train.

From the position in which his corpse was found it was supposed that he

had completed his perilous task, and was about getting through a window

when the explosion took place and the building fell in. His arm was

broken, and there were injuries to the skull and spine which must have

occasioned instant death. Major Ranken commanded the ladder party in the

last attack on the Redan. He was a most promising officer, a great

favourite with his comrades, and his loss was deplored by all who knew

him. It was hard to have escaped the murderous fire of the 8th of

September only to die, less than five months later, crushed beneath a

shattered wall. The unfortunate officer was buried with military

honours, at the Engineers' Cemetery, Left Attack. He was followed to the

grave by General Eyre, commanding the Third Division; by Colonel Lloyd,

commanding the Royal Engineers; and by a large number of officers of his

own corps and of other arms. Major Ranken had the melancholy distinction

of being the last Englishman killed in the Crimea. The last Frenchman

killed there fell in a duel.

[Sidenote: THE COSSACKS.]

On the morning of February the 29th there was a lively and novel scene

at ten o'clock at Traktir Bridge. At its further end a white flag was

hoisted, and just beyond it some five-and-twenty Cossacks halted, who

had escorted thither the Russian General Timovoieff and his staff. At a

few minutes past ten General Barnard and some staff officers rode down

through the ravine between the two hills on which the battle of the

Tchernaya was fought, and crossed to the other side of the river. The

Generals who met to arrange the details of the armistice occupied two

tents, pitched on a strip of greensward in the rear of the bridge. They

were, General Timovoieff, Chief of the Staff of the 4th Corps of the

Russian army, which was in front and furnished the advanced posts;

Generals de Martimprey and Windham and Colonel Count Pettiti, Chiefs of

the Staffs of the French, English, and Sardinian armies. The three

latter were deputed by their Generals-in-Chief to present the proposals

of armistice which these had discussed and decided upon. Their mission

extended no further, and General Timovoieff, not being authorized to

accept those proposals without referring them to his General-in-Chief,

merely took a copy of them to transmit to General Lüders.

There were, perhaps, half a dozen other English officers, about as many

French, and a much larger number of Sardinians. All these went over the

bridge, and a sort of fraternization ensued between them and some

Russian officers--that is to say, there was a good deal of civility, and

some ill-treatment of the French and German languages; but, as to

carrying on much conversation with our Muscovite friends, it was not an

easy matter, for there seemed a mutual embarrassment as to what subject

to pitch upon. Horses were a natural theme, and the Russians expressed

admiration of some of those present, and were probably rather astonished

at their good condition.

The great object of curiosity to us was the fur-capped Cossacks, around

whom the allied officers assembled, examining their arms; and equipments

and entering into conversation, which, in most cases, was carried on by

signs. They were slender, wiry men--ugly enough, most of them--mounted

on small, rough, active horses, and carrying, besides sword and carbine,

flagless lances, whose long black poles terminated in a small but very

sharp-pointed steel head. They seemed well pleased to cultivate the

acquaintance of their enemies, and also had evidently an eye to the main

chance. One of the first things I saw was a Cossack corporal proposing a

barter to a Sardinian officer. The latter had a tolerably good

riding-whip, for which the astute child of the Don insisted on swapping

a shabby sort of instrument of torture, of which his pony was doubtless

rejoiced to be rid. The Sardinian hesitated, the Cossack persisted, and

the exchange was effected, the officer looking, as I thought, rather

ruefully after his departed _cravache_, and somewhat contemptuously at

the shabby but characteristic stick and thong he had received for it.

The signal thus given, the whip trade soon acquired great activity.

Probably some of the officers present were ready enough to part with a

tolerably good whip for a bad Cossack one, as a _souvenir_ of the day's

proceedings and of the commencement of the armistice.

It had been expected that vedettes would be placed, and that very little

freedom of intercourse would be allowed beyond the bridge of Traktir,

and people at first thought themselves fortunate in getting over the

bridge and having a good view of the Cossacks and a chat with some stray

Russian officer. Later, however, as the morning, which had previously

been cold and raw, advanced, and the sun shone bright and warm, the dry,

grassy, and shrub-grown plain of the Tchernaya looking tempting for a

canter, officers began to get restless, and to move away from the bridge

across a small stream or ditch, and up a strip of level ground leading

to a sort of monument, a square pedestal of rough stones surmounted by a

dwarf pillar, of no particular order of architecture, and concerning

whose origin and object the Russians, of whom inquiry was made, could

say nothing. Some more Sardinian and French officers had by this time

come down, but besides those engaged in the conference and attached to

General Windham's staff, I do not think there were a dozen English

officers on the ground. The general disposition of all seemed to be to

move outwards in the direction of the Russian lines. People did not know

how far they might go, and accordingly felt their way, cantering across

a bit of level ground, and up a hill, and then pausing to look about

them and reconnoitre the country and see whether there was any sign of

obstacles to further progress. The soil was of a lighter and more sandy

nature than it was generally found to be within our lines; in some

places it was rather thickly sprinkled with bushes, saplings, and tall

weeds. Several brace of red-legged partridges were sprung, some of them

so near our horses' feet that a hunting-whip would have reached them.

[Sidenote: THE CONFERENCE AT TRAKTIR.]

As the day advanced, the field grew still larger. A French General

arrived with his Staff and several French Hussar officers. Numbers of

Sardinians came, but the English were detained in camp by a muster

parade, and many also had been misinformed that the meeting of the

Generals was not to take place until twelve or one. The horses, long

accustomed to sink to the fetlock in horrid Balaklavan and

Sebastopolitan mire, seemed to enjoy the change to the firm, springy

turf beyond the Tchernaya; more partridges were sprung, to the immense

tantalization of some there present, who would have given a month's pay

for a day's shooting over such ground; some hares also were started, and

one of them was vigorously pursued by a subaltern of a sporting turn,

whose baggage pony, however, was soon left far in rear by puss's active

bounds. By this time we were getting far on towards the Russian lines

and batteries, when the field began to spread out, some taking to the

right, and getting very near to a Cossack vedette, who seemed rather

puzzled to account for the presence of so many strange horsemen within

musket-shot of his post, and who, after beginning to circle once or

twice in signal of an enemy's approach, received a reinforcement in the

shape of another Cossack, who rode down the hill as if to warn the

intruders off forbidden ground. Another party of gallopers went close up

to the battery known as No. 49, and held communion with some vedettes,

with whom they smoked an amicable cigarette, until a Russian officer

came up and politely informed them in French that his orders were to

allow no one to come any further, and that he hoped they would retire,

which they of course did. More to the left a numerous body of horsemen,

followed by a straggling array of Zouaves, Chasseurs, Bersaglieri, and

other infantry soldiers, who had made their way to the ground, rode up

to the ridge just below the spur of the hill to the south of Inkerman.

Here they were very near the Russian pickets, and within particularly

convenient shot of various batteries, had these thought proper to open,

and there most of them paused, for to go further really looked like

abusing the good-nature of the enemy, who had thus allowed us to profit

by the conference to enjoy a ride further into the Russian territory

than any one has been since this camp was formed, and to take a near

view of their positions and defences. Only half a dozen adventurous and

inquisitive spirits pushed ahead, and seemed as if they intended

charging a Russian battery, and the vedettes in this direction began to

move uneasily about also, when up came a Sardinian staff officer at full

speed, his blue plume streaming in the wind, and gave chase to the

forward gentlemen, shouting to them to return. They, seeing themselves

thus cut off in the rear, and perhaps to avoid a rebuke, made a

retrograde flank movement, escaped their pursuer, and rejoined the main

body; and, as orders were then given that no one should go further, a

return towards the bridge became pretty general. On reaching the bridge

a halt was again called round the group of Cossacks, and all eyes were

fixed upon the two neat blue and white-striped tents, with awnings over

their entrances. Some of the Generals were standing outside, and it was

evident that the conference was drawing to a close.

A short delay ensued, which I perceived that the Cossack corporal

availed himself of to exchange his Sardinian whip for a much better

French one, the receiver of the former doubtless imagining he had

secured a genuine Russian article. Then cocked hats and feathers were

seen moving among the horses near the tents; orderlies and escorts

mounted; the Cossacks did the same, and presently English, French,

Sardinian, and Russian Generals and Staff rode over the bridge and

between a double line formed by the spectators. General Timovoieff, a

soldierly-looking man of agreeable physiognomy, rode first, and

smilingly returned the salutes with which he was received. General

Windham was close beside him, a little in the rear. There was an escort

of French Chasseurs-à cheval and a small one of the 11th Hussars, and

the big horses and tall well-fed men of the latter strikingly contrasted

with the puny, although hardy steeds, and with the meagre frames of the

Cossacks, who seemed to regard them with some wonderment, while the

Hussars glanced at them as if they thought that one squadron of theirs

would have an easy bargain of half a dozen sotnias of such antagonists.

The _cortége_ proceeded a short distance into the plain, and then the

allied portion took leave of "_nos amis l'ennemi_" and retraced their

steps to the bridge. They had passed over it, and the crowd of

spectators was following, when they were met by a throng of officers

from the English camp, coming down "to see the fun," which,

unfortunately, was over. Nevertheless, they were pressing forward across

the bridge, and would, doubtless, had they been allowed, have ridden up

to the Bilboquet battery, or across to Mackenzie's Farm--for it is an

axiom that nothing will stop an English infantry officer, mounted on his

favourite baggager; but a French Staff captain, seeing what was likely

to ensue, ordered the sentries to allow no one to cross the bridge. As

we rode up the ravine between the two mamelons, which witnessed such

sharp fighting on the 17th of August, 1855, we met scores more of

English officers coming down, only to be turned back.

At one on the afternoon of March 14th, the Staff of the allied and

Russian armies again met at Traktir Bridge--on this occasion to sign the

conditions of the armistice, which were finally agreed to, the Russians

having shown themselves tolerably pliant. The day was raw, dull, and

disagreeable, with a sharp northerly breeze blowing, but nevertheless a

considerable number of English, French, and Sardinian officers found

their way to the bridge, doubtless in hopes of a repetition of the

canter of the 29th of February; but if that was the bait that lured them

there they were completely disappointed.

Altogether, there was a good number of Russian officers at or near

Traktir Bridge. Some of them were strolling by twos and threes in the

field, at a short distance beyond, and when these were descried there

was usually a regular charge down upon them by the allied officers,

eager to make their acquaintance. Their manner was generally grave and

rather reserved, but they conversed readily, and all had the tone and

appearance of well-bred men. Some of them were very young. There was one

youth of eighteen, who named to us the regiment of Hussars in which he

was an officer, and seemed knowing about horses, pointing out the

English ones from among the French, Italians, and Arabs that stood

around. All--cavalry as well as infantry, and the General and his

Staff--wore the long uniform greatcoat of a sort of brown and grey

mixture, and seemed to have no other insignia of rank than the different

colours and lace of the shoulder-strap. There was also a difference of

fineness in the cloth of their coats from that of the soldiers, but this

at a very short distance was not apparent. The Staff wore white kid

gloves, and I noticed some of them with smart patent leather

boots--elegancies rarely seen in our part of the Crimea.

This time there was no scouring the plain and gossiping with vedettes;

the aqueduct was the limit, observance of which was enforced by a chain

of Zouave sentries patrolling to and fro. A Russian picket was stationed

at about rifle-shot distance beyond the river, along the further bank of

which Cossack and Dragoon vedettes were posted at short intervals. There

was nothing else of any interest to observe, and most of the persons

whom curiosity led to the spot soon grew tired of standing at the edge

of a ditch, and gazing at a distant handful of Muscovites; so they

turned their horses, and tried to warm themselves by a canter back to

the camp.

[Sidenote: RUINS OF SEBASTOPOL.]

But so far as Sebastopol was concerned there was little for the Russians

to gain by covering it with the thin cloak of an armistice.

Had fire been rained down from Heaven upon the devoted city its

annihilation could not have been more complete. The shells of princely

mansions which remained on the French side of the town had been knocked

to atoms by the Russian batteries on the north side; the theatre was

demolished, and the beautiful church of St. Peter and St. Paul laid in

ruins by the same implacable foe; and they directed particular volleys

of round shot and shell on a monument to one of their naval heroes,

which stood conspicuously placed in front of a beautiful little kiosk in

the midst of a garden, to which there was a fine approach from the place

behind Fort Nicholas by a handsome flight of steps, now destroyed. On a

quadrilateral pedestal of some pretensions, supporting entablatures with

allegorical devices, and ornamented at the summit by a _puppis_, were

inscribed, when first I saw it, the name of "Kazarski," and the dates

1829 and 1834, with an intimation that the monument was erected in his

honour. Most of the letters were stolen and knocked away; and had not

the fire from the north ceased, the pedestal itself would have

disappeared likewise. The French garrison, somewhat harassed by the

incessant fire on the town, which, however, did them or us but little

mischief, constructed out of the débris of the houses a very neat

_quartier_ inside the walls. The huts of which it was composed consisted

of wood, ranged in regular rows, with the usual street nomenclature in

these parts of the world. The stranger who halted to survey it from the

neighbouring heights, deceived by the whitewashed and plastered walls of

the houses, might think that Sebastopol was still a city; but when he

walked through its grass-grown, deserted streets, formed by endless rows

of walls alone, of roofless shells of houses, in which not one morsel of

timber could be seen, from threshold to eaves; when he beheld great

yawning craters, half filled with mounds of cut stone, heaped together

in irregular masses; when he gazed on tumuli of disintegrated masonry,

once formidable forts, and shaken, as it were, into dust and powder;

when he stumbled over the fragments of imperial edifices, to peer down

into the great gulfs, choked up with rubbish, which marked the site of

the grand docks of the Queen of the Euxine; beheld the rotting masts and

hulls of the sunken navy which had been nurtured there; when he observed

that what the wrath of the enemy spared was fast crumbling away beneath

the fire of its friends, and that the churches where they worshipped,

the theatres, the public monuments, had been specially selected for the

practice of the Russian gunners, as though they were emulous of running

a race in destruction with the allied armies--he would, no doubt, come

to the conclusion that the history of the world afforded no such

authentic instance of the annihilation of a great city. It is certainly

hard to believe that the site can ever be made available for the

erection of houses or the construction of docks; but I am by no means

certain that the immense resources in the command of manual labour

possessed by the Government of Russia, of which this very struggle

afforded us all such striking proofs, in the Quarantine Battery, the

Bastion Centrale, the Bastion du Mât, the Redan, the Mamelon, and the

Malakoff, may not be made available in time to clear away these modern

ruins, and to rebuild houses, theatres, palaces, churches, forts,

arsenals, and docks, as before.

In the Inkerman ravines are inexhaustible supplies of building material,

which can be floated by the Tchernaya into the waters of the harbour

with very little trouble. The immense quantity of cut stone lying in

piles at the upper end of the harbour showed that the Allies interrupted

the Russians in the development of the splendid architectural plans

which it was the ambition of emperors to accomplish, and which engaged

every thought and energy of the Muscovite governors of the Crimea.

[Sidenote: THE PURCHASE SYSTEM.]

Notwithstanding the very cold weather which prevailed, numbers of our

officers and men descended to the Tchernaya every day to communicate

with the Russians, to examine the new race-course, or to wade after the

wild-fowl which abound in the marshes. There was nothing new in these

interviews, except that the Russians grew more cordial, or less sullen.

The number of officers who came down to our side bore a very small

proportion to that of the allied officers who attended these _réunions_.

The men seemed never to tire of looking on each other. French, English,

and Sardinians swarmed down to the banks of the Tchernaya, in spite of

the cold and bitter winds, to confabulate with the Ruskis, to exchange

money with them, and to stare at their dogged, and, it must be added,

rather dirty-looking enemies, who were not quite so eager or so active

in their curiosity as the allied soldiery, and who needed the stimulus

of turning a dishonest penny in the exchange of small coins to tempt

them from grass cutting, and the pursuit of wild ducks and hares by the

flats beneath Mackenzie's Farm to the banks of the stream. The men I saw

on the warm 20th of September on the slopes of the Alma seemed repeated

and multiplied in every direction across the Tchernaya. There was a

wonderful family likeness among the common soldiers. The small round

bullet-head, the straight light hair, high cheek-bones, grey keen eyes,

rather deeply set beneath straight and slightly defined eye-brows,

undemonstrative noses, with wide nostrils, large straight mouths, square

jaws, and sharp chins, were common to the great majority of them. Their

frames seemed spare and strongly built; but neither in stature nor

breadth of shoulder did they equal the men of our old army of 1854. Many

of the officers could scarcely be distinguished from the men in air,

bearing, or dress, except by the plain, ill-made, and slight swords,

which they carried from an unornamented shoulder-belt; but now and then

one met with a young fellow with the appearance of a gentleman, in spite

of his coarse long coat; occasionally a great tall lumbering fellow, who

seemed to be of a different race from the men around him, slouched along

in his heavy boots. The clothing of the troops appeared to be good.

Their boots, into which they tucked their loose trousers, were easy and

well-made, and the great-coats worn by the men fitted them better than

our own fitted the English infantry. The colour, not so much a grey as a

dunnish drab, is admirably suited not only to conceal the wearers in an

open country, but to defy dust, mud, or rain to alter its appearance.

It was but natural that the two armies should be interested in each

other's condition. The better-informed Russian officers were of course

aware of the nature of our purchase system, but to most of them, that

system was incomprehensible as novel. Its anomalies were, however, so

strongly felt that the debates in Parliament which took place about this

time on the subject were read with deep interest, and repeated and

re-argued over and over again in camp. The friends of the system took it

for granted that the arguments used against it must emanate from men of

democratical and unconstitutional tendencies, and from enemies to the

army and to the aristocracy, and Captain Figgs or Colonel Cottontwist

were as fierce in their denunciations of Lord Goderich, Sir De Lacy

Evans, and even Lord Palmerston, because he made some theoretical

admissions against the system, as Lord Plantagenet or the Earl of

Saxo-Grammaticus. They protested loudly that the object of these

innovators was to drive "gentlemen" out of the army; while their

opponents declared that the effect of the system was to keep

"gentlemen"--those fiery cadets of old families who in other times were

the true soldiers of fortune, the descendants of the gentry

cavaliers--_out_ of the army. If the ex-Sergeant Jones, holding a

commission in one of our corps or regiments, was noisy in his cups and

over-elated with his good fortune, his peccadilloes were the subject of

rejoicings, and were regarded as sufficiently conclusive evidence that

we could not open our commissions to the rank and file; and if he

happened to be brought to a court-martial and reprimanded or cashiered,

the demonstration was complete.

At the time I wrote, "It must be admitted that the training of our

barrack-rooms is not favourable to the acquirement of decent manners and

gentlemanlike demeanour, and that until we elevate the profession of

arms in England, and remove the stigma popularly impressed from the rank

of a private soldier, we cannot expect to induce the needy members of

the more respectable classes in society to enter as volunteers; and the

high rate of rewards for skill in all mechanical and industrial arts

will ever offer an obstacle to the efforts of the recruiting sergeant to

enlist a better sort of recruits so long as the present scale of pay and

ration stoppages is maintained. The advocates for the abolition of

purchase are impressed by the force of such objections as are presented

by the general constitution of our army; but, after all, what the

country keeps up its army for is, not that it may consult the wishes or

the tastes of any class whatever, however numerous, powerful, and

wealthy, but that the army may fight its battles, and maintain its

liberties and its glory against all comers. Pompey's dandies were, no

doubt, greatly displeased at being slashed in the face by Caesar's rough

legionaries, and thought them very low fellows; nor had Rupert's

cavaliers any great opinion of the good breeding or _politesse_ of Old

Noll's Ironsides; but the camp has never been regarded as any special

school for demeanour or the inculcation of etiquette, however favourable

it may be to the development of some of the nobler qualities of

humanity; and if we really can procure brave, intelligent, zealous, and

deserving officers by some enlargement of the limits which have hitherto

circumscribed our choice, we must submit to the inconvenience, though

they may have a smack of the barrack-room about them. It must be

recollected that our boasted mess system utterly breaks down in active

campaigning, and that, in the field, the officers live separately or in

very small groups, so it is only in times of _peace_ that those whom

Providence _finxit meliore luto_ will be obliged to come in contact with

the commissioned _grossier_, who will, after all, always represent a

very small minority. It is forgotten by the friends of the system of

"rank for money," that there has as yet been no officer from the ranks

whose conduct before the enemy has been the subject of unfavourable

notice, and that not one of them has been obliged to leave the service

for refusal to perform his duty in the trenches; nor has it always been

officers from the ranks who have been subjected to courts-martial, by

the sentences of which they were forced from the army. In fact, many of

those who take this side of the question are arguing, not for

aristocracy, but for aurocracy; they are sacrificing to Plutus when they

think they are worshipping Mars, and they confound the two questions--in

themselves entirely distinct, but so mingled in camp dialogue as to be

inseparable--of the purchase system with that of promotion from the

ranks. There are such difficulties in the way of an abolition of the

former system, that its most intrepid advocate may well pause before he

_suddenly_ demolishes it, and the devotion, the courage, and the

endurance of the British officer of the army, and the respect of the men

for him, are very weighty considerations in the way of the theoretical

reformer.

"But if it have its advantages, the system has also its great, its

crying evils, of which every mouth is full, and which are only met by

the remark that there are evils in every system. Look at the case of

Lieutenant-Colonel Cuddy, of the 55th. At the battle of Inkerman, he, as

senior Captain, took the command of his regiment, when his senior

officers were either killed or wounded. Throughout the whole of that

terrible winter he served in the trenches, kept his handful of men

together, and in all respects proved himself as careful as he was brave,

and as prudent as he was zealous. Although lieutenant-colonel in the

army, he was only captain in his regiment, and after having gone through

the winter of 1854 and the spring of 1855, with all their hardships and

conflicts, when the regimental majority was for purchase, owing to the

retirement of the gallant Major Coats (whom I saw so badly hit at the

Alma, that I thought he could scarce recover), Colonel Cuddy had the

mortification of seeing Captain Cure, who was seven years his junior in

the list of captains, and who had served at home with the depôt during

the beginning of the campaign, pass over his head by purchase, and take

the command of the regiment out of his hands. And can the country now

heal the wound in that proud spirit? No; poor Cuddy fell at the Redan,

and his cares and his sorrows are over for ever.

[Sidenote: PROCLAMATION OF PEACE.]

"Cases somewhat similar are not wanting in other regiments. Right or

wrong, had this war gone on, the purchase system was doomed. General

Orders were crowded with notices that Captain So-and-So, having done the

duty of field officer, that Lieutenant Such-a-One, having acted as

Captain, and that Sergeant-Major Nobody, having acted as quartermaster

of his regiment from such a date, would draw pay and allowances

accordingly. War pushed our system horribly out of shape, and gave its

delicate frame such squeezes, and deranged it so terribly, that its

dearest friends scarcely knew it when we carried it home. Some of the

young and intelligent officers on the Staff did not hesitate to express

a hearty wish for the abolition of the system. To the French it was

utterly incomprehensible, and it is a fixed idea in the mind of Private

Jean François Marie that General Codrington paid enormous sums for the

honour of commanding the army--otherwise he cannot understand it."

CHAPTER VI.

Proclamation of Peace--Preparations for the Evacuation--Review of

the Struggle--What might have been done--Russian Song on the

Incidents of the War--Excursions into the Interior of the

Crimea--Defences on the North Side of Sebastopol--Resources of the

Country--Tour in the Interior--Crimean Flora--A real

Obstacle--Useful Public Works executed by the Party--Various

Adventures--Return to Camp.

At two o'clock P.M. on Wednesday, the 2nd of April, proclamation of

peace was made to the Allied armies by salutes of 101 guns, fired by the

field batteries of the Light and Second Divisions, from the heights over

the plain of Balaklava; by the French batteries at the Quartier

Générale; by the Sardinian redoubts at Fedukhine; and by the men-of-war

at Kamiesch and Kazatch; but an early General Order and a very

widely-spread rumour had diffused the intelligence among officers and

men long before the cannon exultingly announced it by their thundering

voices.

The news was known at Balaklava by eight o'clock A.M., and the

_Leander_, Captain Rice, bearing the flag of Admiral Fremantle,

"dressed," and the merchant shipping followed her example, by order, so

that the harbour presented a gayer scene than human eye ever witnessed

since it was first discovered by some most investigating, shore-hugging,

and fissure-pursuing navigator. It was a fine day--at least it appeared

so by contrast with its recent predecessors,--and the effect of the

firing from so many points, all of which were visible from the heights

of the plateau near the Woronzoff Road, was very fine. The enemy saw the

smoke and heard the roar of our guns, but they maintained a stern and

gloomy silence. One would have thought that they, above all, would have

shown some signs of satisfaction at the peace which they sought, and

which they had made such sacrifices to obtain, while no one would have

wondered if the batteries of the English and Sardinians expressed no

opinion on the subject. However, there was not a Russian shot fired or

flag hoisted from Fort Constantine to Mackenzie, nor, although we had

ceased to be enemies, did any increase in our intimacy take place.

The preparations for the evacuation of the Crimea were now pressed on

with rapidity and energy. Each division collected about 4,000 shot a-day

from the iron-studded ravines and grounds in front of our camp, and they

were carried to Balaklava as fast as the means at our disposal--railway

and land transport--permitted. Our soldiers were about to leave the

scene of their sufferings and of their glory. Alas! how many of those

who landed lie there till the judgment-day! Who can tell how many lives

were wasted which ought to have been saved to the country, to friends,

to an honoured old age? These questions may never be answered, least of

all were they answered at Chelsea Hospital. Heaven lets loose all its

plagues on those who delight in war, and on those who shed men's blood,

even in the holiest causes. The pestilence by day and night, deadly

fever, cholera, dysentery, strategical errors, incompetence and apathy

of chieftains, culpable inactivity, fatal audacity--all these follow in

the train of armies, and kill more than bullet or sword. But war has its

rules. The bloody profession by the skilful exercise of which liberty is

achieved or crushed--by which States are saved or annihilated, has

certain fixed principles for its guidance; and the homoeopathic

practitioner in the art, the quack, the charlatan, or the noble amateur,

will soon be detected and overwhelmed in the horrors of defeat and ruin.

Perhaps on no occasion was the neglect of the course of regular practice

so severely punished, even although in the end the object was gained, as

in the siege of Sebastopol.

[Sidenote: RETROSPECT.]

Every statement made by the Russian officers in conversation with us

concurred in this--that we might have taken Sebastopol in September,

1854; that they were not only prepared to abandon the city to its fate,

but that they regarded it as untenable and incapable of defence, and had

some doubts of their position in the Crimea itself, till our inaction

gave Menschikoff courage, and raised in him hopes of an honourable

defence, which might enable him to hold us in check, or to expose us to

the attack of overwhelming masses. They admitted that their great error

was the assumption of a simply defensive attitude after the battle of

Inkerman, and they felt that they ought to have renewed the attack upon

our enfeebled army, notwithstanding the terrible loss they suffered in

that memorable action. It might have been mere military fanfaronade on

their part to put forward such an assertion, but the Russians one and

all declared they could have retaken the Malakoff under the fire of

their ships, but it had been clearly demonstrated since the fire opened

on September the 5th, that it would be impossible to hold the south

side under the increasing weight and proximity of the bombardment. "It

was a veritable butchery, which demoralized our men so far as to make

them doubt the chances of continuing the struggle. We lost 3,000 a-day.

No part of the city was safe, except the actual bombproofs in the

batteries. We were content to have beaten the English at the Redan, to

have repulsed the French at the Bastion of Careening Bay (the Little

Redan), the Gervais Battery, and the Bastion Centrale and to leave them

the credit of surprising the Malakoff; but, even had we held it, we must

soon have retired to the north side, and we had been preparing for that

contingency for some days."

The battle of the Alma had produced such an effect that there seemed to

be no chance of offering resistance to the Allies, and the fall of

Sebastopol was regarded as certain. The Russians, however, meditated a

great revenge, and, knowing the weakness of our army, and that it could

not hold the heights and storm the town at the same time, they intended

to take the very plateau on which we were encamped, to fall on our

troops while we were disorganized by our success, and get them between

the fire of the Russian shipping, of the northern forts, and of the

field artillery outside the place. At first they could not understand

the flank march to Balaklava, except as a manoeuvre to escape the fire

of the north forts, and to get at the weak side of the city, and for

three or four days they waited, uncertain what to do, until they learned

we were preparing for a siege. It was then--that is, about five days

after we appeared before the place--that they commenced the work. Men,

women, and children laboured at them with zeal, and for the first time a

hope was entertained of saving Sebastopol, or of maintaining the defence

till the _corps d'armée_ destined for its relief could march down to

raise the siege.

It was the first instance on record of such a place having been taken by

the mere fire of artillery; for it was admitted by the Russians that

even if the assault on the Malakoff had been repelled, they must have

abandoned a position exposed at every nook and chink and cranny to such

a fire that the very heavens seemed to rain shot and shell upon them. We

lost an army in establishing that fire, and we did not (notwithstanding

the honeyed words of Lord Palmerston, every soldier of the Crimea feels

what I say is the truth)--we did not add to our reputation--nay, we did

not sustain it--in the attacks of the 18th of June and the 8th of

September. And will it be said that _because_ the particulars of those

conflicts have been made known to the world, and _because_ the daring,

the devotion, the gallantry, the heroism of our officers and men have

been displayed before its eyes, that the English nation has lost its

military _prestige_? Would it have been possible to have concealed and

slurred over our failures? Would it have been better to have let the

story be told in Russian despatches, in French _Moniteurs_, in English

_Gazettes_! No; the very dead on Cathcart's Hill would be wronged as

they lay mute in their bloody shrouds, and calumny and falsehood would

insult that warrior race, which is not less Roman because it has known a

Trebia and a Thrasymene. We all felt well assured that it was no fault

of our officers that we did not take the Redan. We could point to the

trenches piled deep with our gallant allies before the Careening Bay and

the Central Bastion, and turn to the Malakoff, won without the loss of

200 men, and then invoke the goddess Fortune! Alas! She does not always

favour the daring; she leaves them sometimes lifeless at the

blood-stained embrasure, before the shattered traverse, in the deadly

ditch and she demands, as hostages for the bestowal of her favours,

skill and prudence, as well as audacity and courage.

There was a song on the incidents of the war very popular in the Russian

camp, in which Prince Menschikoff was exposed to some ridicule, and the

Allies to severe sarcasm. Menschikoff was described as looking out of

the window of a house in Bakshiserai, and inquiring for news from

Sebastopol; courier after courier arrives and says, "Oh! Sebastopol is

safe."--"And what are the Allies doing? "--"Oh! they are breaking down

the houses of Balaklava and eating grapes." The same news for a day or

two. At last a courier tell him the Allies are cutting twigs in the

valleys, and that they are digging great furrows three-quarters of a

mile from the place. "I declare they are going to besiege it," says he;

"and, if so, I must defend it." And so he sends for his engineers. They

at first think the Allies, misled by ancient traditions about the mines,

must be digging for gold; but at last they make a reconnaissance, and,

finding that the Allies are really making approaches, they say, "Why, we

shall have time to throw up works, too;" and so they draw up their

plans, and Todleben says, "Give me five days, and I'll mount three guns

for their two;" and Menschikoff dances and sings, "Ha, ha! _I've_ saved

Sebastopol!" The Russians were astonished at their own success; above

all, they were surprised at the supineness and want of vigilance among

the Allies. They told stories of stealing upon our sentries and carrying

them off, and of rushing at night into our trenches, and finding the men

asleep in their blankets; they recounted with great glee the capture of

a sergeant and five men in daylight, all sound in slumber (poor

wretches, ill-fed, ill-clad, and worked beyond the endurance of human

nature!) in one of the ravines towards Inkerman.

[Sidenote: AFTER THE WAR.]

Among many stories of the kind which I heard, one is remarkable. When

the attack on Inkerman was projected, it was arranged that one strong

column, having crossed the bridge of the Tchernaya, near the head of the

harbour, should march along the road which winds up _above_ the Quarries

ravine, and which leads right upon the ground then occupied by Evans's

Division; but this was conceived to be the most daring part of the

enterprise, "as no doubt, strong pickets would be posted on that road,

and guns commanding the bridge, or raking the road, would be placed

behind the scarps, and these guns would have to be taken, and the

pickets and their supports driven in. Judge of our astonishment when we

found no scarps at all, and not a single gun on this point! Our General

cried, as he gained the level of the plateau without a shot being fired,

'We have them--Sebastopol is saved!' The bridge over the Tchernaya was

not repaired for the passage of men and guns till past five o'clock in

the morning of the 5th, and the men did not begin till after dark on the

preceding evening."

But, after all, we were probably saved from severer trials by our own

want of enterprise. When the conflict before Sebastopol assumed such

gigantic proportions it became _the_ war itself. The armies of Russia

were absorbed into it, and perished in detail. Had we taken Sebastopol

at the outset, we must have been prepared, with our small armies, to

meet those _corps d'armée_ which lost tens of thousands in their hasty

march to relieve the place, but who, in the event of its capture, would

have closed slowly round us, and the same incapacity which prevented our

reaping the fruits of our _coup-de-main_ in attempting the Crimean

expedition, might have led to more serious evils in a protracted

campaign in the open field against a numerous and well handled, if not a

daring, enemy. Success was indeed obtained, but its cost had been great.

What shall be said if much of that cost can be shown to have been a

gratuitous outlay of time and money? To me, next to the graveyards,

verdant oases in the dark plateau, the most melancholy and significant

object was our old parallel opened against the Malakoff, which the

French took from us as the basis of their attack in the spring of 1855.

One man who came into Balaklava after the peace was observed to be very

anxiously peering about the walls of a new store. On being asked what he

was about, he confessed he was searching for the site of his house, in

the cellar of which he had deposited a good deal of plate and valuables.

I fear he had but a Flemish account of them. The Russian military band

(150 strong) at Mackenzie was a great object of attraction. It played at

four o'clock every afternoon. At the hymn of "God preserve the Czar," or

whatever the exact translation of the title may be, all the Russians

took off their caps. I could have wished that our officers who were

present, and who understood the occasion, had done the same, for

immediately afterwards, when the band played "God save the Queen," the

Russians uncovered their heads, and paid to our national anthem the same

mark of respect as they had paid to their own. A Russian officer--a very

young man--covered with orders, was pointed out to some of the officers

as one who had _never left_ the Flagstaff Bastion for eleven months. He

had been shot through the body, and had been wounded in the head, in the

arm, and in the thigh, on different occasions; he had insisted on

remaining in the bastion, nor would he permit himself to be removed to

hospital. Many of the soldiers wore the cross of St. George and other

orders. What a phenomenon would a British private be with the riband of

the C.B. on his breast! The Russians were very anxious to get some of

our medals, and there were some stories afloat concerning the cleverness

with which men sold florins at high prices for Sebastopol medals.

Some officers soon penetrated to Bakshiserai, and returned with alarming

accounts of the price of eatables, drinkables, and accommodation--porter

twenty francs a bottle, champagne thirty-five francs a bottle, dinner

and bed a small fortune. There were some very hospitable fellows among

the Russian officers, and they gave and took invitations to lunch,

dinner, and supper very freely. One of our Generals[35] up at Mackenzie,

was asked to stay to tea by a Russian officer, whose hut he was

visiting, but Madame, who presided at the tea-table, darted such a look

at her peccant spouse when he gave the invitation, and glared so

fiercely at the heretical Englishmen, that our General and Staff turned

tail and bolted, leaving the Ruski to the enjoyment of the lecture which

Madame Caudelska would no doubt inflict upon him. Perhaps the poor lady

was short of spoons, or trembled for her stock of sugar.

As there was nothing doing in camp I proceeded on a week's excursion to

Simpheropol, the Tchatir Dagh, Bakshiserai, Orianda, Yalta, and by

Aloupka. The Russians sent passes to head-quarters, with one of which I

was furnished. It was as follows: "Carte de passe pour les avant postes"

(in print), "General de Service Tchervinsky;" then in Russian MS.,

"Allowed to pass--General Major."

Before I left I went over the north forts, and carefully examined the

defences of the place. Fort Constantine bore very few marks of the

bombardment and cannonade of the 17th of October, 1854. The crown of the

arch of one embrasure was injured, and supported by wood, and the

stone-work was pitted here and there with shot; but the "pits" had been

neatly filled in and plastered over. Fort Catherine, or Nachimoff

(formerly Suwaroff), was uninjured, but St. Michael's, which was badly

built, suffered from the French mortar fire after we got into the town.

The citadel was covered on all sides by earthworks, and the hill-sides

furrowed up by lines of batteries bearing on every landing-place and

every approach. In line from Fort Constantine to the Quarantine and

Alexander Forts were sunk, before the 17th of October, three

eighty-fours, then one hundred-and-twenty, then two eighty-fours, and

then one fifty-four. Inside this line was a strong boom, which would

have brought up any vessels that had succeeded in bursting through the

sunken ships. This outer line and the boom itself were so much damaged,

however, by the gale of the 14th of November as to be of little use. The

second boom, consisting of chain cables floated by timber, extended from

Fort Nicholas on the south to the west of St. Michael's Fort on the

north. Inside this boom were sunk, commencing from the north side, a

sixty-gun ship, an eighty-four, a one-hundred-and-twenty, an

eighty-four, and a sixty-gun frigate. Then came the bridge of boats from

Fort Nicholas to St. Michael's. Inside that, in two lines, lay the rest

of the Russian fleet. The first was formed of three eighty-fours, a

one-hundred-and-twenty, and one hundred-and-ten-gun line-of-battle ship;

the second consisted of a seven-gun steamer, a six-gun ditto, a

thirteen-gun ditto, and an eighty-four, close to the ruins of Fort Paul.

Nearer to Inkerman, in the creeks and bays on the north side, were

sunken steamers, five brigs of war and corvettes, and a schooner yacht

sunk or aground.

The boats of the men-of-war were safe in one of the creeks which our

guns could not reach.

[Sidenote: HIGH PRICES IN THE CRIMEA.]

The Russians shouted at us lustily as we were engaged in examining the

timbers. Although the teredo had not attacked the wood, it was covered

with barnacles and slime, and from what we saw of the ships, it did not

seem likely they would ever be raised as men-of-war again. The famous

"_Twelve Apostles_" the "_Three Godheads_" the "_Tchesme_" the

"_Wratislaw_" and the "_Empress Maria_" were unseaworthy before they

were sunk, and the only ship for which the Russians expressed any sorrow

was the "_Grand Duke Constantine_," one-hundred-and-twenty, the finest

ship in their navy. She seemed quite content with her berth on the

bottom, and it will be some time before a timber of her floats again.

The impression left upon the mind of every person who made the little

tour round the coast was that the resources of Russia in men were

reduced to a low ebb in the course of this war, and that she would have

been utterly unable to maintain an army in the Crimea, or to continue in

possession of it, had we made an aggressive movement with all our forces

from Theodosia or Eupatoria, or even left her in an attitude of

watchfulness along the extended line from the north side of Sebastopol

to Simpheropol. That she possessed considerable means of transport, and

had arabas, telegas, and horses sufficient, in ordinary times and on

good roads, for the service of her army, was evident enough; but I was

assured, on authority beyond question, that for two whole days in the

winter the troops at Mackenzie were left without food, in consequence of

the state of the roads. The prices of provisions, allowing very amply

for the extortions of needy Tartars, of famished innkeepers, and for an

extremely liberal spirit on the part of English tourists, were enormous,

and it was almost impossible in many places to procure barley or corn

for horses at any sum whatever. The country was deserted, the fields

uncultivated, agriculture unheeded. A few flocks of sheep and herds of

cattle were to be seen here and there in the course of a week's ride,

but these were the property of the Government or of contractors, and

were not for sale; along the south coast fresh meat was unknown, and

salt fish and salt pork were the food of those in good circumstances. A

mouthful of hay for a horse cost half a rouble or fifty copecs--eggs

were 5_d._ a-piece--fowls utterly beyond the means of Croesus.

But amid all these evidences of desolation, the Cossack was seen here,

there, everywhere--singly--in twos and threes--in pickets--in

patrols--in grand guards--in polks--trotting, walking, or galloping,

mounted high on his quaint saddle over his shaggy, long-tailed pony,

flourishing with one hand his cruel whip, while with the other he guided

the docile animal, above which he towered like a giant, his dirty grey

coat fluttering in the breeze and his lance-point shining brightly in

the sun. He was sown broadcast all over the Crimea. But you did not see

regular soldiers in any numbers till you entered the typhus-haunted

streets of Simpheropol, or waded through the mud of Bakshiserai; and

even here the miserable, jaded, utterly spiritless, ill-clad, ill-fed,

and broken-down militiamen were in the proportion of two to one to the

soldiers of the line.

In order to judge of the state of the country, I shall transcribe from

my diary during the tour such portions of it as appear likely to afford

information respecting the effects of the war, or give an insight into

the condition of the Crimea. Some other portions, referring to matters

of less importance, may, however, prove amusing, if not instructive,

more from the novelty of the circumstances to which they relate than

from any merit of narration or powers of description.

[Sidenote: VALLEY OF BAIDAR.]

"_April 12th._--Started at ten o'clock from camp. The party consisted of

four officers, two civilians--one of them myself, the other a travelling

gentleman--an interpreter, two soldier servants, and one civilian

servant. We took with us a strong two-wheeled light cart, drawn by two

mules and a pack-pony, and carried in the cart a canteen, a few bottles

of spirits and sherry, cases of preserved beef, two tents,

fowling-pieces, a fishing-rod, picks and spades, blankets and

horse-cloths. The cart was started early, with orders to halt at Baidar

till we arrived, and the party were trotting along the Woronzoff Road

towards Kamara by eleven o'clock. The day was most favourable--a clear

sky, genial sun, and light southerly wind. I met the 4th Hussars

(French) on their march in from their cantonments about Baidar, where

they have been long exposed to most trying work on outpost duty, and in

the ordinary occupation of light cavalry in war time. They were fine

soldierly fellows, and were 'quite ready as they sat to ride either to

the Great Wall of China or St. Petersburg.' Each man carried a portion

of the cooking utensils of his mess, forage for his horse, blankets, and

necessaries for the march, and seemed heavily charged, but on

examination he would be found to weigh a couple of stone less than an

English Hussar--otherwise, indeed, his small horse, however

high-tempered, could not carry him. The Sardinians were also on the

move, and sending in baggage to Balaklava. The large village of sheds

and sutlers' shops on the road at the Fedukhine heights, which was

called 'Woronzoff,' was in considerable excitement at the prospect of

losing its customers, notwithstanding that the Russians flocked in to

supply their place. The French camp here is built like that of their

neighbours the Sardinians, very much on the Tartar or Russian plan, and

the huts are semi-subterranean. They present in appearance a strong

contrast to the regular rows of high wooden huts belonging to the

Highland Division opposite, at Kamara, but the money saved to France and

Sardinia by the ingenuity and exertions of their soldiers in hutting

themselves must have been very considerable in amount. To counteract the

_mesquin_ look of these huts, our Allies--more especially the

French--planted the ground with young firs and evergreens, brought a

considerable distance from the hill-sides of Baidar, so that, after all,

their camp is more pleasant to look at than that of the English. They

have also made gardens, which promise to bear fruit, flowers, and

vegetables for Tartars and Muscovites, and they have turned a large

portion of ground by the banks of the Tchernaya, and close to the

Traktir Bridge, into a succession of gardens, each appropriated to

different companies of the regiments encamped in the neighbourhood. _Sic

vos non vobis._

"As we entered the gorge which leads into the valley of Varnutka we met

some Tartar families, men and children, on the road, looking out

possibly for some place to squat on. These poor creatures are menaced

with a forced return to their nomadic habits of centuries ago.

Civilization has corrupted them. The youngsters run alongside your

horse, crying out, if you are English, 'I say, Johnny, piaster! give me

piaster, Johnny!' if you are French, 'Doe dong (intended for _dites

donc_), donnez moi piaster'--when young, a bright-eyed, handsome race,

with fine teeth and clear complexions; and when old, venerable-looking,

owing to their marked features and long beards, but in manhood sly,

avaricious, shy, and suspicious. The Russians give bad accounts of them,

and say they are not to be trusted, that they are revengeful and

ill-disposed--the slave-owner's account of his nigger. Most of the

fruit-trees in the pretty valley of Miskomia and Varnutka have been cut

down for fuel. Crossing the ridge which separates this valley from that

of Baidar, we pass the gutted and half-ruined chateau _dit_ 'Peroffsky.'

For a long time this charming little villa supplied French and English

cavalry outposts with delicious, wine from its cellars, and was spared

from ruin; but bit by bit things were taken away, and at last a general

spoliation of all the place contained was made--the furniture was

smashed to atoms, the doors broken, the windows carried away. One

officer attached to the light cavalry regiment quartered there took away

a handsome china service, and most of these dangerous visitors brought

off some memento of their visits. The Tartars were rather rejoiced at

the ruin of the place, for Count Peroffsky was no favourite with them,

but they always express the greatest regard and affection for Prince

Woronzoff. Baidar itself--a middling Tartar hamlet at the best of

times--looks worse than ever now; garance dyed breeches were hanging out

of the window-holes on all sides, and outside one very shaky,

tumble-down wattle-house, there was a board declaring that there was

good eating and drinking in the 'Café Pelissier.' The village has one

advantage, of which no Tartar village is ever destitute--a stream of

clear water flows through it, and there are two or three fine springs

close at hand. The people are miserable; the men are employed by the

French as woodcutters and as drivers of arabas, but the money they

receive is not sufficient to procure them full supplies of food or

proper clothing.

"From Baidar the road ascends by the mountain ridges to the Foross or

Phoros Pass, and affords many delightful views of the great valley of

Baidar, which is, as it were, a vast wooded basin, surrounded by

mountain and hill ranges covered with trees, and sweeping right round

it. Blackbirds, thrushes, nightingales, large gaudy jays, wood-pigeons,

doves, rock-pigeons, hawks, falcons, and great numbers of magpies,

frequent the valley, and those which have good voices make it right

musical towards sunset. Nightingales are very numerous, and so are

varieties of flycatchers, titmice, and buntings. In winter, the hills

are full of woodcock, the springs are haunted by snipe, wild duck,

widgeon, and teal; and the woods give shelter not only to roe-deer, but,

if certain reports promulgated this winter are to be believed, to wolves

and bears. The road to Phoros is not good, and in winter must have been

of little use. The summit of the pass at Phoros is surmounted by a stone

arch which crosses the road at a place guarded by walls of rock,

hundreds of feet in height. There is a French guard here, and, of

course, we had to exhibit our passes. That was but a little matter, but

on entering the archway we found it was fortified after the first rules

of art: there were traverses and parapets of great height and thickness,

and at the other side of the arch were similar obstacles. The mules were

taken out of the cart; then it was unloaded, and the things carried one

by one to the other side of these entrenchments; then the wheels were

taken off, and by the united strength of our whole party, aided by some

good-natured French soldiers, the cart itself was lifted up bodily and

carried across all the gabions, earthworks, and traverses, and landed

with a cheer on the narrow road at the other side of the pass.

[Sidenote: PUBLIC WORKS--PHOROS PASS.]

"The scene which bursts upon the eye on emerging from the arch is one of

the finest I have ever witnessed--indeed, I am not sure that it is not

the most beautiful and grand that can be seen anywhere. You find

yourself standing in a very narrow road, on the left hand of which a

sheer slab of rock rises to the height of 600 or 700 feet above--its

surface rent with fissures, here and there dotted by stunted firs, which

cling like weeds to its surface, diversified with all the tints for

which volcanic rocks are remarkable. At the base of this cliff, which

stretches further than the sight can trace it, there is a ragged fringe

of mighty boulders, of fragments of mountains tossed down in the wildest

confusion amid the straggling brushwood. On your right, nearly 1,000

feet below, is the sea, washing the narrow selvage of land which,

covered with thick groves and dotted with rocks, tumbles down beneath

your feet in waves of verdure, so rapidly that the dark blue waters,

which are really nearly a mile distant, seem to be only a few hundred

yards from the road. This narrow shelving strip of land, which lies

beneath the cliff and descends to the sea, formed of the débris of the

mountain-chain above it, extends along the coast from Phoros to Demur

Kapu, or the Iron Gate, widening as it runs eastward, and losing its

distinctive character completely ere it reaches Aloushta, in consequence

of the great wall of cliff on the left hand receding rapidly inland and

northwards from the point opposite Yalta. The length of this strip is

thirty miles. It is nearly a mile broad at Phoros, and thence it

gradually expands, till at Aloupka it attains a breadth of three miles

from the sea to the base of the cliff, and at Yalta is five miles. The

road winds for many miles along the foot of these stupendous crags, but

there is a lower road, reached by zig-zags, which leads to the villas

situated in the lovely valleys by the coast. This strip of shelving land

is of the most varied formation. It is tossed about into hill and dale,

and is seamed with shady ravines and deep woody dells, which are

watercourses in winter. As it is quite sheltered by the cliff from

northerly winds, and is exposed to the full power of the sun, the

climate here is beautifully mild until the heats of summer begin, and

the land produces in great perfection an astonishing variety of

vegetable productions.

"The Crimea has a Flora of its own, but the lady is dressed so quaintly,

uses such strange language, and is called so many hard, long names, that

in my ignorance I am afraid to approach her, or to do anything more than

to praise her general effect and appearance at a distance. But here

indeed is a horrid reality to talk about. Some half-mile from Phoros,

the road runs through a solid rock by means of a tunnel about thirty

yards long. I happened to be riding in advance, and saw that this tunnel

was blocked up by a wall seven feet in height and eight feet in

thickness. All passage for the cart seemed hopeless. We never could lift

it up so high. There was no getting round the rock, and so I smote my

breast and returned to the party. But there were two or three among us

not easily to be deterred from their purpose. An examination was made; a

council of war was held; and it was decided that over the wall we must

go, and that the obstacle intended to prevent the march of Cossack

cavalry and the carriage of mountain guns, was not to impede six British

tourists. Under the direction of our acting engineer, to work we went.

The party got on the wall, and proceeded to dislodge the stones on both

sides with regularity and precision, rolling them down so as to form a

kind of solid arch out of the centre of the wall. Shins were cut, toes

were smashed, spurs were bent, but the work went on, and at the end of

three-quarters of an hour the way was declared to be practicable. The

mules were taken out of the cart, and walked by a footpath round the

rock; the heavy articles were unloaded, and then, with main strength,

the cart was spoked up to the top of the mound of rocks and stones,

after a desperate struggle, and then, with immense difficulty, was

backed down to the road on the other side. Maybe the old tunnel did not

re-echo three tremendous cheers when the work was over, and the mules

emerged with their triumphant chariot! But our troubles were not half

over. The French were uneasy at Phoros--they had scarped the road, and

what they had spared, two winters of neglect had very nearly demolished.

Before we moved six miles we executed, in addition to these labours, the

following great public works, in order to get our cart over: No. 1.

Built a wall to bank up the roadside at a precipice; No. 2. Filled up a

crevice with brushwood and loose stone; No. 3. Made the road practicable

with fascines; No. 4. Cut away hill-side, so as to widen the road by the

side of a precipice where it had given way; No. 5. Unloaded cart and

spoked it over a bad bit, and loaded it again.

"It is about twenty-two miles from the camp to Phoros pass, and our

halting-place for the night is the ruined chateau of Isarkaia, which is

about six miles from Phoros. We reached this secluded spot about seven

o'clock in the evening. The walls and roof alone are left. The windows

are smashed in, woodwork and all, and the only thing untouched in the

place is a mangle in the kitchen. We stable our horses in the parlours

and library, for all I know to the contrary, unpack the cart, and carry

in saddles and bedding to the room designed for dining and sleeping.

There are no boarded rooms, but the clay floor is soft, a fountain and a

stream of water run hard by. The horses are groomed and supplied with

hay and corn, and we prepare for dinner. A horrid announcement is

made--'The Major has forgot to bring either kettle, gridiron, or

saucepan! The tea and the sugar have got mixed! But that is no

consequence.' What is to be done? Ingenious engineer suggests that my

tinned iron dish shall be used as a frying-pan; carried _nem. con._ As

to saucepan, some ingenious person drives two holes in a potted beef tin

case, thrusts a piece of wood through them as handle, and proceeds to

make soup therein over a blazing fire lighted up in one of the ruined

fireplaces of the drawing-room. Just as soup is ready, handle burns

through, and soup upsets into the fire, a disaster quite irretrievable,

and so we proceed to devour tough ration-beef done in steaks on the tin

dish. Sherry is forthcoming, bread, and preserved vegetables. Water is

boiled in a small teapot, and produces enough for a temperate glass of

grog; the blankets are spread on the floor, and preparations are made

for sleep. First, however, the watch is appointed. Each man takes an

hour in the alphabetical order of his name, from eleven to five o'clock,

to watch the horses, to keep in the fire, and to guard against theft.

The mangle is broken up for firewood. In doing so, the best made London

axe, bought from an eminent saddler, flies in two at the first

chop!--useful article for travelling! Odd legs of chairs and tables,

bits of drawers, and dressers, and cupboards, are piled up for the same

purpose, and our first watch is left on his post. We muster three

double-barrelled guns and four revolvers between us, a total of thirty

shots; the night passes quietly.

[Sidenote: TOILS BY THE WAY.]