The delight of the crowd on Cathcart's hill was intense. " Well, this is iiulced a sight! to see one of those confounded slups touclieJ at last!" These, and many diflereut and stronger expressions, were audible on all sides, but there were some wise people who thought the liussians had set the ship on fire, or that incendiaries and malcontents were at work, and one gentleman even went so far as to say that he "' thought it was merely a signal — may be to recall their cavalry from Eupatoria!" It is not Icnown precisely how the thing was done. Some say It Avas done by the French; others, by ourselves; and bombs, red-hot shot, and rockets, have been variously named as the means by which the vessel was set on fu'e.
In spite of the efforts of the Russians, the flames spread, and soon issued from the ports and quarter-gallery. At eight o'clock the light was so great that the houses of the city and the ibiis on the other side could bo distinguished without difficulty. The masts stood long, towering aloft like great pillars of fii'e; but one after the other they came down; the decks fell in about ten o'clock, and at midnight the frigate had burnt to the water's edge. The armament of our batteries on the occasion of opening this bombardment consisted of thirty-four 13-inch mortars, twenty-seven 10-inch ditto, ten 8-inch ditto, twenty 5|-inch cohorns — total, ninety-one mortars. On the I7tli of October we had but ten mortars, and they were 10- inch.
We had also two Lancasters; no 24-pounders. — (On I7tli of October one-half of our guns nearly were 2-1-pounders). Sixty-one 32-pounders as compared with seven on 17th October, thirty-seven 8-Inch guns as compared with sixteen, seven 10-inch guns as compared with nine, six 68-pounders, and three 9-pounders for the heads of the saps. We threw 12,721 bombs into the town as compared with 27 13 in the first bombardment; and we fired 89,540 shot against the place as compared with 19,879 on the same date. In the left attack our batteries had been advanced 2500 feet towards the front of the old line of fire, but it was Impossible to make any further advance by sap for the purpose of assault, as the ver3'- steep ravine by which the Woronzoff' road sweeps into the town ran below the plateau on which the attack was placed, and separated it from the Redan.
The old parallel of the attack, wherein our batteries Nos. 3, 4, and 5 Avere placed at the ridiculous distance of 4000 feet from the Redan, and our batteries Nos. 9 and 12 at the same distance from the Flagstaff Bastion works, was now a mere base from which the advanced works had proceeded. The second parallel was 15,000 feet in front of it, and In that parallel were batteries Nos. 10 and 14, still 2500 feet from the parapet of the Eedan. The third parallel was about 700 feet in front of the second; and as it was found that we could not hope to advance much beyond that position, owing to the nature of the ground, our batteries were placed more towards the proper left face of the Flagstaff Battery, and towards the Garden Battery in rear of it.
In this parallel, batteries Nos. 7, 8, 13, 14, and 15 were opened. Our fourth parallel, which was unarmed, was about 600 feet in advance of the third, and was filled witli infantry and riflemen, who kept up a constant fire in the place, more particularly at night. The ravine in which the Woronzoff road is made runs between our left and right attack, and separates them completely. The right attack, which is by far the most important, was originally commenced at the distance of 4500 feet from the IJedan, and of more than 5000 feet from the Malakhoff. It contained batteries Nos. 1, 3, 3, 4, 5; at its right was the old Lancaster battery detached on No. 11; and in an advanced parallel on the left flank of No. 12 was battery No. 10.
In the approach from the 1st to the 20th parallel was battery No. 7. The second parallel is more than 1000 feet in front of the first parallel; and it contained batteries Nos. 9, 14, 12, 6, and 15. The battery No. 8 was in the third parallel, which was a few hundred feet in advance of the second. The fourth parallel, whicli communicates with the Quarries, is about 1200 leet in advance of the third parallel. In the Quarries are the batteries Nos. 16 and 17. Tlie fifth parallel, from which the assault is to take place, is about 300 feet in front of the Quarries; and there is a feeble attempt at a sixth parallel a few yards in advance, which was in such bad ground that it was of little use and could not be continued.