They are civil engineers and civilians belonging to your recently formed Army Works Corps." " Hallo, here's another — what's he? a felt helmet with a spike in it and brass binding— a red frock with black braid — a big horse — a cavalry man, eh P" " Well, he's one of the Mounted Staff Corps, and he gets as much as an Ensign in the line lor being ready to go anj'where — when he's wanted." " VVHio's that drunken fellow — an old soldier in the odd uniform, with medals on his breast?" " Hush! he's the last one left of the Ambulance Corps. They cost a lot of money, and did some good, but McMurdo wont have them now, unless he gets his own way with them, and " " I beg your pui'don, but who is that foreign officer in a white bournous and attended by a bi'illiant staff of Generals — him with the blue and silver stripe down his trousers I mean, and gold braid on his v/aistcoat, and a red and Avliite cap; it must be Pelissier?" "That! why that's J\L Sorer, chef de iios hcdtcries de cuisine, and if you go and speak to him, you'll find he'll talk to you for several hours about the way your meat is wasted; and so I wish you good morning, sir, and everjsuccess in trade and commerce to enable you to pay all the gentlemen j-ou have seen to-day, as well as a speedy entry into Sebastopol." Ah! that is indeed what we all desire; there are few indeed who would wish to go away ere we had strolled as masters through its streets, and tried the strength of the Eussian Torres Vedras from Mackenzie's Farm to the lines of the Belbek.
This week has not enabled us to boast of our progress, and it has produced two disasters which, although of a trifling nature, have, no doubt, inspired the Eussians with confidence, and compensated them to a certain extent for the progress our armies have made in their sap. The first of these was the explosion of a French magazine near the JMamelon, which was caused by a Ivussian shell; tlio second was tlie tLMiiponiry success oi' tho Russians in our iif'th parallel on Thursday ni;j;ht. Further details will he found helow. I may add that the firin<.if is tolerahlj' brisk all da}'; about a gun every second bellows from one side or another from dawn till dusk; then begins a heavier cannonadi! from the Kussians in order to catch our reliefs, and a bombardment from the allies, and before dawn there are generally tremendous bursts of ordnance.
The twittering rattle of small arms never ceases in the advanced trenches daj' or night. August -TO. The camp, from one extremity to the other, was this morning, at one o'clock, shaken by a prodigious explosion, which produced the effects of an earthquake. A deplorable accident had occurred to our gallant allies as they were pursuing their works with their accustomed energy. A tumbrel, from which they were dischai'ging powder into one of the magazines near the ManiClon, was struck by a shell from the Russian batteries, which bursting as it crashed through tho roof of the carriage, ignited the cartridges within; the flames reached the powder in the magazine, and, with a hideous roar, 1400 rounds of gunpowder rushed forth in a volcano of fire to the skies, shattering to atoms the magazine, the tumbrels, and all the surrounding works, and whirling from its centre in all directions over the face of the Mamelon and bej'ond it, 150 officers and men.
Of these, 40 were killed on the spot and the rest are scorched and burnt, or wounded by splinters, stones, and the shot and shell which were thrown into the air by the fiery eruption. Masses of earth, gabions, stones, fragments of carriages, and heavy shot were hurled far into our works on the left of the French, and wounded several of our men. The light of the explosion was not great, but its roar and the shock it gave the earth were very considerable. The heaviest sleepers awoke and rushed out of theiitents. There was silence for an instant, and but ibr an instant, as the sullen thunder I'oUed slowly away and echoed along the heights of Inkermann and Mackenzie, then the Russians, leaping to their guns, cheered loudly, but their voices were soon smothered in the crash of the French and Fnglish batteries, which opened along the right of the attack, and played fiei'cely upon their works.