It is certain that the enemy knew his weakness, and was too good a strategist to defend a position of which we held the key. Sebastopol in flames, his ships sunk, told the stoiy next morning, and some 10,000 French and English soldiers were its commentators. Could we have done so, it would have been well for the English PROGRESS OF TfiE to claim the lionour of joining in the assault on the Malaklioif, the tower of which we had heaten into ruins, and abstain ftom attacking the Redan, which could offer a desperate, and as events proved, a successful resistance, till the works around the ]\Ialakhoff were taken. The surprise thi'oughout the camp on Sunday morning was beyond description when the news spread that Sebastopol Avas on lire, and that the enemy were retreating.
The tremendous explosions, which shook the very ground like so many earthquakes, failed to disturb many of our wearied soldiers. ^\ hen I rose before daybreak, and got up to Cathcart's-hill, there were not many ofEcers standing on that favourite spot; and the sleepers who had lain down to rest, doubtful of the complete success of the French, and certain of our own failui-e, little dreamt that Sebastopol was ours. All was ready for a renewed assault on the Redan, but the Russians having kept up a brisk fire from the rifle-pits and embrasures to the last moment, and having adopted the same plan along their lines, so as to blind oui" eyes and engage our attention, abandoned it, as is supposed, about twelve o'clock, and, the silence having attracted the attention of our men, some volunteers crept up and looked through an embrasm-e, and found the place deserted by all, save the dead and dying.
Soon afterwards, wandering fires gleamed through the streets and outskirts of the town — point after point became alight — the flames shone out of the windows of the houses — rows of mansions caught and burned up, and, before daybreak, the town of Sebastopol — that fine and stately mistress of the Euxine, on which we had so often turned a longing eye, — was on fire from the sea to the Dockyard Creek. Fort Alexander was blown up with a stupendous crash, that made the very earth reel, early in the night. At sunrise four large explosions on the left followed in quick succession, and announced the destruction of the Quarantine Fort, and of the magazines of the batteries of the Central Bastion and Flagstaff Fort.
In a moment afterwards the proper left of the Redan was the scene of a very heavy explosion, which must have destroyed a number of wounded men on both sides. Fortunately, the soldiers who had entered it early in the night were withdrawn. The Flagstaff and Garden Batteries blew up, one after another, at 4"45. At 5"30 there were two of the largest and grandest explosions on the left that ever shook the earth — most probably from Fort Alexander and the Grand Magazine. The rush of black smoke, grey and wliite vapour, masses of stone, beams of timber, and masonry into the air was appalling, and then followed the roar of a great bombardment; it was a magazine of shells blown np into the air, and exploding like some gigantic pyrotechnic display in the sky — innumerable flashes of fire twittering high up in the column of dark smoke over the town, and then changing rapidly into as many balls of white smoke like little clouds.
All this time the Russians were marching with sullen tramp across the bridge, and boats were busy carrying ofl' materiel from the town, or bearing men to the south side, to complete the work of destruction, and renew the fires of hidden mines, or light up untouched houses. Of the fleet all that remained visible were the eight steamers and the masts of the sunken line-of-battlc ships. As soon as it was dawn the French began to steal from their trenches into the burning town, undismayed by the flames, by the terrors of these explosions, by the fire of a lurking enemy, or by the fire of their own guns, which kept on slowly discharging cannon shot and grape into the suburbs at regular intervals, possibly with the very object of deterring stragglei's from risking their lives.