Captain M'Cleverty again manifested that cool daring which distinguished him at Odessa, and engaged the fort opposed to him with the engines of the Terrible stopped; and every ofiicer and man in the fleet displayed the greatest ardour, and the most thorough contempt of danger. All that human skill, energy, and resolution could eifect was achieved; but when night compelled the fleets to draw off*, the long-pending question between wooden and granite walls had been definitively settled in one case, at least, in favour of the latter. The damage done to the Russian fortifications was insignificant; batteries had, indeed, been silenced for a time, because the artillerymen could no longer serve their guns under so heavy a fire, but the batteries still remained, seamed here and there, and blackened, but undestroyed.
The fleets, on the other hand, suffered a severe loss in men, and many of the ships suifered most severely from the rough handling which they received from the forts.
The Albion and the Arethusa were compelled to withdraw in an excessively crippled state; the Firebrand was scarcely in a better position; and the Retribution had her mainmast shot away. The results obtained were not commensurate to the sacrifice; and in no subsequent bombardment did the fleets take a share, though they have since contributed less directly, but not less surely to the long-delayed fate of Sebastopol. The fire on shore slackened towards evening, and ceased at the same time as that at sea. By this time the Round Tower had been knocked into a shapeless mass of ruins, but the earthworks around it were still in existence. The Redan had been nearly silenced; but the French batteries had been so knocked about, and the injuries resulting from the explosion of the two magazines were so great, that a considerable delay took place before our Allies were enabled to resume the offensive. On the next day the superiority of the Russian artillery was still more clearly established; and from this time the fire of the Allies continued to grow daily more feeble, until their ammunition being exhausted, and many
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of the guns and mortars worn out, it became necessary, before resuming the attack in earnest, to await the arrival and employment of a new siegetrain. Many interesting anecdotes are related of this bombardment, most of which must be familiar to the majority of our readers. The Naval Brigade, who distinguished themselves by their activity, energy, carelessness of danger, and cheerfulness of demeanour, contributed a large portion of these stories, in many of which there is a mixture of the tragic and grotesque, reminding one forcibly of some of Hogarth's pictures.