At three o'clock on the afternoon of the 6th of June, one blank gun was fired as a signal, and the French and English batteries once more opened on the place. The fire on our side was kept up with the greatest energy until the fall of evening; the Russians replied with great vigour; but it was observed that their fire was not so well directed as on previous occasions: a change which was attributed to their deficiency in experienced artillerymen, no adequate reinforcements having been brought up to make good their heavy losses in this important arm. During the night, mortars only were employed by the Allies; but the next morning the whole of the guns resumed the work of destruction with the most telling effect. This bombardment was distinguished from the preceding ones by the greatly increased mortar firing from our batteries, and the loss thus inflicted on the defenders of the Russian works was correspondingly heavy. The practice of the Allied artillerymen was admirable: shell after shell burst within the parapets of the Malakoff and Mamelon; some small cohorns in the advanced work did fearful execution among the riflemen in the Quarries — as a new trench or place d^armes constructed on some broken ground in front of the Redan since the last bombardment was named; and the long guns were laid wiih such precision, that, in a few hours, the parapets of the Maraelon and the Redan and the face of the Malakoff looking towards our trenches were completely battered in, and the fire of these works almost silenced. It had been arranged, on opening fire, that on the second day a combined assault should be made, — an intention thus characteristically announced by General Pelissier, in a telegraphic despatch to his government. " To-day (June 6), with our Allies, we opened fire against the outer works, and to-morrow, so please God, we will take them." The outer works thus alluded to were, in the first place, the Volhynian and Selenghinsk redoubts, constructed by the Russians and unsuccessfully attacked by the French in February, and which were called by the latter the ^^Ouvrages Blancs;" then the Mamelon; and still more to the left the Quarries. The two former of these works fell to the share of the French, while the last was to be attacked by the English. " Each of these attacks," says an historian of the war, " is separated from the other by a steep and rocky ravine; that of the Ouvrages Blancs is separated from the Malakoflf attack by the ravine of Careening Bay, and the Malakoff attack is separated from the English attack by the ravine of the Karabelnaia. These ravines inconveniently isolated the attacks, but their covered spots enabled the Allies to place numerous and powerful reserves sheltered from the enemy's fire." The evening was the time chosen for the assault, as there would still be sufficient light for the troops to see what they were attacking, while the closing -in of night would in a great measure obviate their exposure to the enemy's fire, while establishing themselves in the captured works.
General Pelissier, whose despatches are no less remarkable for the lucidity of their style, than for their accuracy and fulness of detail, thus narrates the part borne by the French: —
" At half-past six Lord Raglan was at the English observatory. I myself proceeded to the trench in front of the Victoria Redoubt, whence, as agreed upon with his Lordship, I sent up rockets as the signal for the attack. General Bosquet, who was at the battery next to the Lancaster Battery, had just received his last reports. Everything was ready, the troops were burning with ardour, and perfectly confident of success. As the first rocket went up, the Lavaraude Brigade, headed by its general, rushed forth from the second parallel of Careening Bay, and, at a running charge, carried the works of the 27th of February. Despite the fire of grape and musketry it had to face during the 200 yards it had to cross, and which caused considerable loss, the column penetrated into the battery by the embrasures and breaches. A hand-to-hand struggle ensued on every 2 H