lay down to wait for daylight. In a quarter of an hour it came, and I found myself in a most commanding position for seeing the enemy's works; I was on a rocky excrescence, at the top of the ravine between the English and French attacks, but some five hundred yards in advance of both. I proceeded to make an eye-sketch of the enemy's batteries, and succeeded in some measure in doing so for some time, when I heard "ping, ping!" close to my ears, and found I had been discovered by some Russian sharpshooters on picket, who were now taking very deliberate aim at me. Of course I retreated as fast as possible, and fortunately escaped untouched to my horse, who was well concealed in a hollow. I rode home to breakfast at 8 o'clock, very well pleased with my morning's adventure. Since then I have employed my time in writing you this letter: I hope in my next I may announce the opening of our guns on the Russian works.

Redan Bastion du Mât

Garden Battery, &c.- Statistics - English attacks - French works Bombardment of 17th October Explosions French fire silenced Lancaster gun Naval brigade Russian sortie - Artillery ing Allied fleetsBombardment by fleets

- Superiority of English engineerAdmirals Hamelin and Dundas

Casualties French disasters

Lord Dunkellin - Death of Colonel Alexander, R.E. Captain Peel, R.N. "Vladimir " - British daring · Description of Russian fleet sunk.

Head-quarters before Sevastopol, 18th October, 1854.

Ar last we have begun in earnest to bombard Sevastopol. Yesterday morning saw the commencement of our fire on that unfortunate city. But I may as well finish my account of the preparations for the siege before giving you the details of our opening fire. On the 14th instant we received a considerable reinforcement to our army by the arrival of near 4000 Turkish troops. Although not of the best, they nevertheless appear a strong set of

men, and will, it is to be hoped, prove themselves of the same stamp as the brave defenders of Silistria. The greater portion of these men are to occupy the forts now in course of construction in front of Balaklava; a position of considerable importance, and where their worth will, in all probability, be tested before long by an attack from the enemy. This day arrived at our head-quarters a Turkish General (Omer) from Bucharest, with letters of congratulation from Omer Pasha to the allied Generals on the victory of the Alma and their successes since that day. He is also to remain for the present as a sort of Turkish Commissioner, to keep Omer Pasha informed of our doings. Soon after 1 P.M. the Russians opened a tremendous fire against the French trenches and works. This lasted for an hour and three quarters, during which time they threw no less than 1500 projectiles, without doing much harm. The French loss was only 5 killed and from 15 to 20 wounded. A part of their trenches was a good deal knocked about, but that was repaired during the following night. General Canrobert and his staff were going round the trenches at the time,

and had some narrow escapes. General Rose, the English Commissioner attached to the French headquarters, was struck in the face by a piece of shell, just below the eye, but was fortunately not seriously hurt further than receiving a severe cut. The supposed object of this Russian cannonade was to try the range of their guns, and also to test the effect of their fire on the besiegers. We all expected the same experiment to be tried on our trenches, nor were we disappointed, although it did not take place until the 16th instant. About 10 A.M. the Russians opened all their guns on the English and French works. It gave us an opportunity of ascertaining to a certain extent what fire they could bring against us. It was computed that they fired about 80 guns against the English and 70 against the French. There is reason to believe that there are some 50 mortars of large calibre in rear of their batteries, which will open on us when the bombardment commences. The fire from the enemy lasted about the same time as that on the former occasion. I was sent down to our trenches to ascertain what casualties had occurred; it appeared that we only had 3

men killed and 5 wounded in the trenches, but the covering parties, some distance in rear of the trenches, lost 2 men killed and 11 wounded. The French loss was about the same, as far as I could ascertain. Our works hardly suffered at all; here and there a gabion was displaced, but nothing that could not be repaired in the course of a few hours.

As an instance of the admirable practice of the Russian artillery, I must tell you that on this day I had to take some orders to Sir George Cathcart. He was walking about a hundred yards in advance of his tent in the open. I rode up to him, and dismounted, and might have been in conversation with him five minutes. We were all at once interrupted by that most disagreeable sound-a shot approaching. We both looked up, but, the sun being in our eyes, could see nothing. Sir George lay down, and I endeavoured to do the same, but my horse began to take alarm, and it was as much as I could do to hold him. There was nothing for

it but to wait the result.

Almost immediately a

tremendous roar and a heavy "thub" on the ground five yards from us told we were safe. We laughed