Notwithstanding these preparations, there were many rumours of peace. We had a peace party in camp, who reasoned that the Russians could sustain the contest no longer. According to these authorities, in a couple of months the British Army was to go home again. But there is no magic in wishes any more than in words, and these prophets of peace underrated the tenacity and endurance of the Russian Government and people. Our works on the left continued to advance. Several new batteries — one of 15 mortars — were constructed in front of what had been our most advanced positions on that part of the line.
The English cavalry came down to the valley every morning, as if haunting the ground where its comrades fell, and watching an opportunity to revenge them. The effect was imposing — perfect, one might say, if anything human could be called so. Horses and men were in excellent condition, as fit for work as any cavalry could be.
CHAPTER IV.
A few days quietude — Languishment of British firing — Prince Gortschakoffs opinion of our feeble Squibs — Number of little globules thrown into Sebastopol in a Month — Efforts to suppress the number of Sutlers' houses — Conversation with John Bull as to Composition of Allied Forces, &c. — Terrific and Destructive Explosion — Heavy and fierce Cannonading — Rumours of Disorganization in Sebastopol — Heavy Losses in Allied Armies — Naval Theatricals — Crisis of the Si-ge— Rumours of a last Grand Attack or a Sortie by Russians — Eagerness of Allies for a Battle — Dangerous work of the Trenches — Proposal for a Trench service Decoration — Condition of Sardinians and French — Fatalities amongst New and Amateur Trenchmen — Renewed Musketry and Artillery firing — Crowded state of our Trenches — Effective ruse of the Russians.
All the latter part of August passed quietly away: the Russians on the alert to resist an assault — we prepared to meet the rumoured attack upon our lines. After the failure of June 18, our cannonade languished. We talked of it as slackening, and considered it extinct. Prince Gortschakoff assured the world that it was a mere
CRIMEA.
squib, a feeble firework, which did those tough Russians no harm, and caused their troops no inconvenience; and yet, somehow or other, between the 18th of June and 18th of July, not less than eight thousand pretty little globules of iron, eight, ten, and thirteen inches in diameter, and falling with a weight equivalent to fifty and to ninety tons, were deposited inside the lines of Sebastopol, and every one that burst sent forth some six or eight fragments, of several pounds weight each, a distance of two or three hundred yards, unless they were stopped in transitu by traverse or sinew.
The authorities took active measures to curtail the proportions of the vast village of suttlers' houses at Kadikoi. As there was a report that the fair was a nest of spies — that strange fires were occasionally lighted up on the hills behind it, towards Karanyi, and were answered by the Russians on the Plateau Mackenzie, and people came and departed as they listed without any interference with their movements, it was resolved to keep its limits more under control and supervision.
Some divisions managed to get together a considerable accumulation of stores in advance, and almost in anticipation of the winter, but fuel was brought up de die in diem by a most thriftless process. It was no unusual thing to see a string of fine Spanish mules and ponies, each of which cost a good round sum, coming from Kasatch or Balaklava with a couple of stout boughs lashed to each side of their pack-saddles, the ends trailing on the ground, and the drivers urging them at full speed. The proper load of wood for a mule is 2001b. Judging from the loads I saw weighed, they actually carried less than 1001b., and at the same time the costly pack-saddles were ruined, and the animals distressed and injured by this clumsy mode of carriage. As I could not help exclaiming at the time, " How the money is flying! If Mr. John could but have stood upon one of the hill-tops in the Crimea, and if, after gladdening his heart with the sight of his fine fleet floating grandly on the water outside the * beleaguered city,' — rejoicing over his brave sons whose white tents studded the brown steppe row after row, — and rubbing his hands -with delight at the thunder of his batteries — he would just have wiped his glasses and looked at the less glorious and exciting portions of the scene, he would have some uneasy tinglings in his breeckes^pockets, depend on it."
" Where are all these horses going to?"
" Oh, they're Spanish horses, which have been cast by the artillery, and they're going to be sold as unfit for service."