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the old Tower of the Malakoff. rushed up was a party of engineers, who instantly commenced placing the heights in a position of defence against the Russians, who no doubt would not allow the French to remain undisputed masters of it. Accordingly they soon came on in dense masses, and on came too the French on the other side, dispatched by General Bosquet to the support of their countrymen. A tremendous struggle ensued, which we narrate in the graphic words of General Regon, who led the French engineers to the top of the hill:

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I entered the Malakoff at the head of the sappers with the Zouaves of the first division of the second corps d'armée. We climbed the ditch like cats, dislodged the enemy, forced the lines, and carried the redoubts with an enthusiasm and rapidity perfectly French. Our standards, planted on the parapets, were assailed and vigorously defended for more than six hours. After this heroic struggle, our column had alone the honour of remaining master of its conquests; the four others, two on our right and two on our left, were compelled to give way, leaving the ground covered with their killed and wounded. But our triumph sufficed to deprive the Russians of the power of retaining the redoubt.'

The part taken by the English on this great day was more creditable to the bravery of the soldiers than to the skill of their commander. General Simpson had committed to Generals Codrington and Markham the task of assaulting and, if possible, taking the Redan. The attack was delayed till the Malakoff was captured, in order that the efforts of the Russians might be distracted and paralysed by a number of simultaneous assaults. Therefore the moment that the tricolor was seen floating on the Malakoff the signal for the assault on the Redan was given. At first a thousand men of various arms were sent out. They had to traverse a long distance under the hot fire of the enemy before they reached the place; and when they forced their way into it, the fire was equally severe, and multitudes were mown down by it. In vain was messenger after messenger dispatched for reinforcements; not one of them succeeded in escaping the fiery hail through which he had to pass in order to reach General

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Codrington. At last Colonel Windham, who commanded the handful that still remained, determined himself to undertake the errand; but while he was conferring with General Codrington on the subject, his men were driven out by the vastly superior force of Russians that was opposed to them. Pelissier, seeing that the struggle for the Malakoff was still going on, sent a message to General Simpson, begging him to effect a diversion of the Russian force by making a second attempt on the Redan, but the English General sent back word that his trenches were so crowded that he could not organise a fresh attacking force. Thus the first attack failed because too few took part in it; and a second was impossible because there were too many present when it should have been made. An assault against the south-western part of the defences of the town, under the direction of General Canrobert, also failed. It was found that the Russians in this quarter were better entrenched and in greater force than had been anticipated; and as the attack had answered its main purpose, in diverting the attention of the Russians from the great struggle in the Malakoff, Pelissier gave orders to desist as soon as he saw that his hold on the redoubt was secured. On the side of the besiegers about 10,000 men were killed or wounded on this terrible day, and the loss on the side of the Russians must have been much greater.

It had been intended that the attack on the Redan should be renewed on the morning of Sunday, September the 9th, the day following that on which the Malakoff had been taken by the French; but Gortschakoff, during the night, had taken measures which rendered any farther attempt unnecessary. Some time before, he had caused a bridge of boats to be constructed across the harbour, and he now made use of it to transport his army to the other side. The allied generals had some suspicion of what was going on, but they made no attempt to interfere with the retreat of the enemy; and when the morning dawned, not only the troops, but the regular inhabitants, and as many of the wounded as it was possible to move, had been transferred to the north side. All the principal buildings were blown up or burnt; the ships that still remained were either sunk or set on fire. Then the

Russians removed the bridge by which they had crossed, and thus placed a deep arm of the sea between themselves and their antagonists. These last, on entering the town, found it shattered to an extent that they could not have anticipated. Everywhere there were tokens of the destruction that they had wrought. The houses were almost all destroyed; the streets literally paved with fragments of shells and other missiles sunk in the earth; the hospital contained a thousand dead who the day before had been carried into it alive, besides a large number who had been left behind because they were too severely wounded to be carried across the harbour with the rest of the army. One of the first tasks which the conquerors had to perform was the destruction of the forts, docks, and aqueducts, which had been constructed with extraordinary care and skill, and on which the Emperor Nicholas had expended enormous sums. This was effected with great difficulty; for such was the solidity of those works, that even the force of gunpowder would scarcely suffice to upheave them.

The capture of the south side of Sebastopol practically terminated the war. It had gained for the allies their great object-the safety of the Turkish empire, which was no longer menaced, now that the Black-Sea fleet and the fortress from which it issued had ceased to exist. On the other hand, the Russian government had nothing to gain, but everything to lose, by the continuance of a war which caused a terrible drain on its resources, and in which, owing to the distance and the naval superiority of the allies, it could only receive their blows without returning them. The 'sick man' too, now that the Black-Sea fleet was no more, was strong enough, even without the aid of the allies, to defend his own territories from Russian aggression. For the present, however, the two armies remained confronting one another. Our soldiers were obliged to spend another winter in the neighbourhood of Sebastopol and Balaclava; but it was spent in a manner very different from that which had preceded it. They were amply supplied with necessaries, and even enjoyed some luxuries, warmly clad, comfortably housed in wooden huts, and probably, on the whole, as well protected from the inclemency of the weather, on the dreary Crimean

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coast, as they would have been at home, to which the conclusion of peace at the commencement of the following year enabled them speedily to return.

There is one episode in this war which demands some notice, not so much on account of its own importance as on account of the interest it excited in this country-the heroic defence of Kars by General Williams. The Russians had invaded Asiatic Turkey in the year 1854, and had gained at Kurchdere a decisive victory, which had completed the disorganisation of their opponents and opened the way to farther conquests. The Turkish army contained excellent materials; the common soldiers, if properly taught and officered, were quite a match for their Russian antagonists, as they had already shown in other fields; but they were led by jobbing and cowardly officers, who were incapable of developing the good qualities of their men or handling them properly in the day of battle. It was therefore determined to send an English officer, who should endeavour to reorganise the Turkish army, and put it in a position to contend with the invaders. Colonel Williams, the officer selected, was admirably well qualified for the task assigned to him. He had already been employed in settling the boundaries between Turkey in Asia and Persia, and had thus acquired a knowledge of the Turkish language and Turkish tribes and habits, that were indispensable to the due fulfilment of his mission. Unhappily, however, the government did not show the same despatch in sending as it had displayed wisdom in selecting. Though appointed on the 2d of August, he was not enabled to reach Kars till the 24th of September, when the disastrous battle, the result of which might possibly have been changed by his presence at it, had already been fought. He was accompanied by Dr. Sandwith, a medical man, and several young English officers. When he reached Kars, he found that he did not possess the power and the prestige necessary to introduce some order amongst the unruly elements with which he had to deal. He had, in fact, no authority over the Turkish officers, whose cupidity and mismanagement had ruined the army, and whose cowardice and ignorance had brought about the defeat it had suffered. He therefore wrote to Lord Clarendon, to ask that the title of Ferrick, or general, might be conferred on him by the

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Turkish government. Lord Clarendon forwarded the application to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe; but nothing was done. Letter after letter was despatched to the British minister, and by him the request was conveyed to the British ambassador; but still the matter was neglected. At last, when many valuable months had been lost, Lord Redcliffe was stimulated to do what was required, and the authority that Colonel Williams so much needed was granted to him.

Six weeks elapsed before the ambassador, to whom no fewer than fifty-four despatches, accompanied by private letters, had been sent by Colonel Williams, thought proper to move in the matter; and then ten weeks more were allowed by the Turkish government to elapse before the firman was issued. One of the first uses he made of it was to send three peculating pashas for trial to Constantinople. The pay of the army was many months in arrear, the sick were neglected, the soldiers insufficiently supplied. All these evils were reformed. Dr. Sandwith was placed at the head of the hospital, and soon brought it into such order as had never been known in a Turkish hospital before. The people of the country, confiding in the promises of General Williams, brought in provisions in abundance. Captain Teesdale reorganised and restored the discipline of Kars, while the general was putting Erzeroum in a posture of defence. However, on the approach of the Russian army under its able general Mouravieff, he hastened to Kars, which he provisioned for four months, and prepared to defend to the last. Williams had pressed the Turkish authorities to send farther supplies of provisions, which would have enabled him to hold out two months longer. They only sent them to Yenekoï, fifty miles distant. Still, he might have conveyed them from this place if he had had cavalry, and for cavalry he had urgently applied to his. own government; but none were sent. The inveterate redtapeism, by which he had been already so much hindered, afflicted and impeded him to the last. The Russians seized Yenekoï, without his being able to interfere with them, and took possession of the provisions, which, if introduced into Kars, would probably have prevented its fall. Meanwhile Williams, zealously aided by the young officers he had brought with him, was diligently preparing to meet the

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