Kertch is taken; at Arabat there was a battle, in which we were victorious. They even say that a Russian army is marching upon Paris. Up to to-day all was quiet in Sebastopol. To-day, the enemy bombarded heavily, but did notliing but bombard, and will do nothing; they can do nothing at all against us. Mother, who has just come from there, says it is impossible to recognise the town, it is so much changed by the fortifications continually added to it. At the Severnaya, you enter as through a gate, with enormous batteries on each side. Slother was there a day when it was quite quiet; she even slept in the town that night. At ten o'clock a shell fell into the gallery near the window; happily, it did not fall into the room, or she might have been hurt. * * They say that the seat of waiwill soon be transferred to the Danube.
It is time that these gentlemen should leave us, and let us have a little rest. As soon as they go, the town of Sebastopol will be built where the Chersonese was, and what is now Sebastopol will be entirely a fortress. How curious it will be, till one gets accustomed to it," &c. The writer goes on to speak of her yellow dress being ready, and of her intention of going in it to Sebastopol in order to have her portrait taken. It would appear that the Russians are taking the thing very coolly, or rather were doing so six weeks ago. But within a few hours after the foregoing letter was written the Mamelon was attacked, and the most brilliant operation of the siege performed.
The bombardment, which the fair writer and her military friends treated with such contempt, was no doubt expected by them to resemble the operations of Uctober and April, and to be followed up by no attack. It would seem that for once we found the Eussians unprepared, and bj' availing ourselves of that opportunity, a^aincd the most signal success -which has attended the siege operations, a success which, if it had been followed up, would, no doubt, have led to still more glorious results. The Sevcrnaya alluded to in the letter is what we call the Star Fort, or is more probably the name for the whole northern faubourg. The Uussians are busily at work, strengthening this part of the place, as well as their positions on the Katcha and J3clbek, in anticipation of operations at some future period for the entire possession of Sebastopol and the Crimea.
Omar Pasha has his head-quai-ters near Ivamara. It is difficult to imagine a spot more romantic than the one selected by the Ottoman General. It is situate on a slope facing the sea, and is in the shadow of Cape Aia, which rises perpendicularly from the Euxine to a height of 700 feet. In the hollow, near the Pasha's head-quarters, a Tartar Bey has pitched his tent. He fled with his family either from the severity or the threats of the Russians, and made his submission to the Turkish General. His conduct is perhaps not wise, as he will lose all his property, which will be seized by the Russian Government, and the Turks will leave him to die in a ditch directly he has ceased to be useful to them.
It is a singular thing, that while the French and British troops consider their most harassing work to be the duty in the trenches, the Turks, who are equally interested in the event of the war, and will be the most benefited by its success, do not take any share in actual siege operations, and are now amusing themselves with the mere pastime of foraging, or actually sitting in indolence for hours together, following the shadows of their tents as they move from west to east, smoking stolidly, or grinning at the antics of some mountebank comrade. Omar Pasha goes hither and thither without object, merely that his army may seem to be employed; its actual services are of little importance. It is said that an agreement was made between the allied Generals and the Porte that the Turks were not to assist in the siege.
But why not? and can such an arrangement be binding when the public good demands a different com'se? If the Ottoman troops be so excellent behind fortifications, there can be no objection to their relieving their hard-worked allies in some of the less important positions: or they might at least be employed in some more active manner than merely moving to and fro occaOMAR PASHA. 2-5 sionally, as if for the purpose of impressing the niind of Europe with a false idea of activity. The rumour has spread within the hisfc few days that Omar Pasha is to go to Ivars, in order to relieve the place and oppose the advance of the Russians in Asia. But this, if seriously contemplated, can be intended only as a measure of preparation for next year's campaign, and the object will be rather to save Erzcroum than Kars.