The prisoners sold their kits and all they could dispose of — droschkies, horses, spare clothing, and food, by a rude kind of public auction on the Spit.
to the ckimea.
As the garrison marched out they were ordered to pile their arms, but many of them, with rage and mortification depicted on their features, threw them on the ground at the feet of the conquerors. On the whole, they seemed " the worst lot " of Muscovite infantry I ever saw, and consisted of either old men or lads — the former fine soldier-like fellows enough, but the latter stupid, loutish, and diminutive. They availed themselves of the license in the fort to fill all their canteens, and in some instances their stomachs also, with "vodka," and many of them were drunk when they marched out, but intoxication had the effect of making them extremely amiable and facetious. The officers bore their misfortune with dignity, but felt it deeply, as was evident from their grave demeanour and stern countenances. Few of them wore decorations, and only one was dressed in full uniform. A Chef de Bataillon or Major, wearing a long light-blue cloak with red collar, who limped along with difficulty, had a good deal of influence over those around him, and kept the drunken soldiers in awe by his look, and a sergeant in a long green frock-coat with yellow facings and stripes, aided him in repressing the mirthful disposition of some of the bacchanalians on the line of march.
Kinburn Fort had fifty-one guns mounted en larlette, inside and in the outworks, six flanking guns in casemates, and twelve mortars, and of these twenty-nine were dismounted, smashed, or disabled in gun or carriage. In the Centre Spit Battery there were ten guns, of which two were disabled; and in the Spit or JSTorth Battery there were ten guns, of which three were smashed. We arrived just in time to prevent the latter work from assuming most troublesome dimensions, for the casemates were ready for nine guns more, and the platforms indicated they would be of large calibre. The guns in position were small eighteen and twenty-four pounders, of great weight and thickness, and some of ancient date; inside we found a small park of guns ready for mounting. Some were of the date of 1852, and the piles of shot and shell and stores of ammunition of all kinds were out of all proportion to the size of the place.
At six o'clock, on the 18th, the Russians, with their usual incendiary propensities, set fire to the fort below Oczakoif, and after blowing up the magazines, which went into the air with two heavy explosions, retired. On the 19th, in compliance with the wishes of the French Admiral, Sir Edmund Lyons decided on despatching a squadron, under the orders of Sir Houston Stewart, to cooperate with the French squadron under Bear- Admiral Pellion in protecting the left flank of the Allied troops who set out on a reconnaissance towards Cherson.
Before the squadrons weighed a French boat left the Bear- Admiral's ship with a flag of truce for Oczakoff. She carried a reply to the request sent by the Russian general under a flag of truce the previous day, and informed him that the "major-general who had commanded in Kinburn se porte a inerveille, that forty-five wounded Russians were in the French ambulances, and that the French general regretted he could not state the names of the officers who rr tiie bug. 413
were prisoners/' but lie did not say whether that was owing to any difficulties in orthography or not. As the boat neared the beach,, an officer, followed by two soldiers, came from the town to meet them. One of the men bore a tremendous flag of truce — there could be no Hango mistake about it; he had a large tablecloth suspended from a pole, under the weight of which he staggered as he walked. The boat touched the beach, and, with much formal bowing and martial civilities, the missive was handed to the Russian, who retired with his tablecloth waving behind him up the hill, and was lost to sight amid the houses. Two old priestsscrambled down to the ruins of the fort, and, with their flowing robes and long beards, seemed like ancient prophets invoking maledictions — as no doubt they were — upon the fleet.