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fellows on the side of the river nearest the Russians. spite of a tough and severe contest, the soldiers forded the stream at a spot against which the enemy directed a continual and well-directed fire. General Pennefather with his brigade, and the other regiment of Adams's brigade, turned to the left of the blazing village, under the fire of the Russian artillery.

The river Alma presents a winding course, with high banks; the fords are very difficult, and few in number. The Russians had posted troops in the lowest part of the valley, which was covered with trees, gardens, and houses; and in the village of Bouliouk, a body of sharpshooters, well protected and armed with rifled carbines, received our soldiers with a very hot and galling fire.

In every part of the field the battle now raged with intense fury. The roar of cannon, the platoon firing of musketry, the crack of the rifle, drowned the cheering of the men and the hoarse commands of the officers. The carnage had been very great, and many a brave fellow found a grave in the waters of the Alma, while the wounded were saved with difficulty. The conduct of Lord Raglan was admirable. He was everywhere seen in the post of danger leading and encouraging the soldiery. Now came the turning point of the battle, in which Lord Raglan, by his sagacity and military skill, secured the victory to the allies. He dashed forward, followed by his staff and the enthusiastic red-coats, carrying everything before them.

Meantime the Guards and the Brigade of Highlanders were storming the heights on the left. Their line was almost

as regular as if they were marching in Hyde-park. Suddenly a tornado of round and grape rushed through from the Russians' terrible battery, and a roar of musketry from behind thinned their front ranks by dozens. It was evident that we were only just able to contend against the Russians, favoured as they were by a great position. At this very time an immense mass of Russian infantry were seen moving down towards the battery. They halted. It was the crisis of the day. Sharp, angular, and solid, they looked as if they were cut out of the solid rock. It was beyond all doubt that if our infantry, harassed and thinned as they were, got into the battery, they would have to again encounter a formidable fire. Lord Raglan saw the difficulties of the situation. He asked if it would be possible to get a couple of guns to bear on the masses of advancing Russians. The reply was "Yes," and an artillery officer soon brought up two guns and placed them in position. The first shot missed, but the next, and the next, and the next cut through the ranks of the enemy so cleanly, and so keenly, that a clear lane could be seen for a moment through the square. After a few rounds the columns of the square were broken; the soldiers wavered to and fro, broke, and fled over the brow of the hill, leaving behind them six or seven distinct lines of dead, lying as close as possible to each other, marking the passages of Lord Raglan's fatal messengers. This act relieved our soldiery of a deadly incubus, and allowed them to continue their magnificent and fearful progress up the hill.

The nature of the battle ground, one of the most difficult ever mastered by English and French valour, was such that

the cavalry was unable to act, except in cutting off a few prisoners at the end of the day. But had the cavalry force been sufficiently numerous, the Russians would have never been allowed to re-form, after they had been thrown into confusion.

The battle of the Alma was over at half-past four, when the French formed on the heights and opened their fire. The Russians no longer retreated in good order. They ran away, throwing guns and knapsacks to the ground. The French Marshal tells us in his despatch, that "the bravery of Lord Raglan rivalled that of the heroes of antiquity. In the midst of cannon and musket shot he displayed a calmness that never deserted him."

Thus was fought and gained the first great battle in the Crimea a battle to be followed by the victories of Balaklava, Inkermann, and Eupatoria.

But the night after the battle, who shall describe it? A graphic writer says:

"I had remained in the rear of the Guards and Highlanders until they commenced crossing the vineyard, when the Russian shot, which began ploughing through the ranks, told me, in language not to be mistaken, that, as a non-combatant, it was madness my going any further. I accordingly returned to a conspicuous eminence on one side of the valley, from which I could survey the whole scene of carnage and destruction. Directly the heights were gained, I galloped across, and was shocked and sickened at the sight of the battle-field. In the commencement of an action one feels nothing but fierce excitement, which increases as the battle grows hotter. Fear of

wounds, even pity for the wounded, is seldom felt-so intense, so breathless, is the eagerness with which every feature of the great game is watched. But crossing the field afterwards is quite a different affair. The anxiety is over, the battle is won, and the reaction of the spirit has set in.

"There was indeed nothing in the scene of the late strife to soothe excited feelings, or lessen the intense disgust or sickening sensations with which one looks upon the real horrors of war. Long lines of men carrying stretchers were bearing the wounded to the rear. Their ghastly features, blood-stained clothes, and listless expression were even more painful to notice than the long, deep moans of agony which could be heard from different parts of the valley. But the worst was to come. Lower down the ground was strewn with shakoes and camp-kettles, which the men had thrown away as they advanced. When the fight commenced in the early part of the day the ground was quite dotted with Russian cannon-balls, which had ploughed up the ground in all directions. Here lay many of our dead, for the wounded had been early carried off. They were principally Guardsmen and men of the Light Division, who had been struck down by cannon shot, for at this time they were out of range of musketry. Some had their limbs torn off, some their heads; others, who had been hit full in the body by twenty-four pounders, were mere smashed and horrible masses of bloody rags. Mixed with these were artillery and ammunition horses, some torn nearly in half, while others, with their limbs mangled, were snorting and plunging in their agony, or rolling over the corpses of the soldiers near them. Close to the village, where the action was

hottest, and there was no time to bear off the wounded, our men lay pretty thick in one long line, from the ford below the bridge to the vineyard in front of the redoubt. Here all the stragglers were busily engaged in putting blankets over the men, with their great-coats under their heads, adjusting a broken limb, tying some ligature over a fast-bleeding flesh wound, or, above all, distributing water from the muddy stream the army had forded. Further on, in front of the redoubts, was the largest number of our killed and wounded. After that our casualties were few and far between; but within the redoubts, and from thence to the hills, the scene was awful. The Russian dead literally covered the ground. Within the trenches and redoubts the earth, where the corpses allowed you to see it, was slippery with blood. Never did I witness a more ghastly sight. From the place where the enemy had attempted to make their last stand, for the extent of nearly a mile, the ground was covered with their knapsacks, which they had thrown away to accelerate their flight.

Fifteen or sixteen hundred of their dead strewed the hills-their wounded had most of them been carried off by the cavalry and artillery.

"At Sebastopol the fatal news was received with profound astonishment and terror. Even from that place desertion commenced. Meanwhile, there were the wounded to be provided for, as well as ammunition and stores to be landed. The preparations for the wounded and sick at Constantinople were on a very extensive scale. The Scutari barracks had been declared fit to accommodate 6,000 men, and at this moment there were 3,500 in the place-English, French, and