When one remembers the host of those scavengers which infested our army during the past winter, it seems strange that there should not be one to be seen now. Whether they have been disgusted by the numbers of paid Tartar and Croat scavengers enlisted by the allied armies, and dreaded starvation, or whether they found more choice morsels on the Russian side, where there may be likewise a good deal to excite their gluttony, or, lastly, whether they are driven away by the heat, I cannot tell. The HighlandBrigade,under Brigadier-General Cameron, seems destined to be a permanent reserve for the Piedmontese. They came down, as I wrote to you in my last letter, on Saturday morning, the day on which the Russian attack has been positively expected, and have remained since encamped on a slope behind Kamara.
This was the first occasion on which English troops have come into immediate contact as neighbours with the Piedmontese. Hitherto their acquaintance had only been carried at a distance. The Sardinians, who from the very beginning had been encamped on this side, were only rarely seen about the British camp, and the intercourse was mostly confined to a passing "bono," which seems to have become the first universally received word in the cosmopolitan language which is gradually coming into general use out here. There was much more companionsliip between the French and Piedmontese, as many of the latter, as well as the Savoyards, speak French, and they were close neighbours on the Tchernaya. But from all one sees, now that thejare close to each other, the inability to express their feelings does not prevent the Highlanders and Piedmontese from entertaining reciprocal feelings of good will, the neighbouring canteens furnishing the means of eloquence to both parties.
Scarcely three days have elapsed since their first acquaintance, and the frequent mingling of red coats with gray ones must strike every eye. The Sardinian band, which plays every evening on an open space in the centre of the Piedmontese camp, seems to be the rendezvous where the first step towards acqiiaintanceship is made. I don't know whether it be by the law of contrasts, or from the coincidence that both are distinguished from the other corps of their respective armies by their peculiar dress, but it seems to me that the most intimate intercourse exists between the tiny Bersaglieri and the tall Highlanders.. In consequence of the daily apprehension of an attack, the English cavalry is turned out regularly every morning, and comes down to the valley, as if haunting the ground where its comrades fell, and watching an opportunity to revenge them.
The disasters which befell our cavalry last year have left no trace, and. Phoenix like, it has arisen more brilliant than ever from its ashes. The effect is imposing — perfect, one might say, if anything human could be called so. Horses and men are in excellent condition, as fit for work as any cavalry can be. It would not, however, be at all desirable that this daily expedition should continue. It has, indeed, the advantage of saving the turning out for parade, so that the horses rest after they come back from the valley, and have only to go down for water; but if those morning rides are to last, they will soon bring down the horses in condition, and then they would have some difficulty in facing a Crimean winter, even in good stables.
This was, I think, last year fatal to the horses. In September and October harassing outpost duties reduced them, and you could see every day detachments of cavalry hunting sly Cossacks towards the Tchernaya, so that the horses weie in very indifferent condition when the first rains began, and, with their weakened constitutions, could not face hunger, wet, and cold. Omar Pasha is expected every moment. Yesterday the honses were sent down again for him to Kamiesch. He will retain the command of the Turkish troops in the Crimea, visit Yenikale and Eupatovia, and then go to Asia, wliere tlie Russians are pressing upon Kars, taking with him a division from these parts. There is not much chanee that he will do anythingthere this year; the season is too far advanced, and in a mouth, or at most six weeks, campaigning in Asia will be over.