The masts were speedily licked and warmed into a fiery glow, and the rigging burst out into fitful wavering lines of light struggling with the wind for life; the j-ards shed lambent showei's of sparks and burning splinters upon the water. The noithern works could be readily traced by the light of the conflagration, and the faces of the Russian soldiers and sailors who were scattered about on the face of the clifi^ shone out now and then and justified Rembrandt. The work of destruction sped rapidly. The vessels were soon nothing but huge arks of blinding light, which hissed and crackled fiercely, and tlu-ew up clouds of sparks and embers, and the guns, as they became hot, exploded, and shook the crazy hull to atoms.
One after another they went down into the seething waters. The cavalry out on the plains wondered what great conilagration had broken out anew in the town. At daybreak, only one steamer remained. A boat pushed alongside her from the shore. They boarded her, and, after remaining below about ten minute.s, returned to their boat and regained the shore. Very speedily the vessel began to be seized with a sort of internal convulsion — fu'st she dipped her bows, then her stem, then gave a few iineasy shakes, and at length, after a short shiver, went down bodily, cleverly scuttled. Thus was Sinope avenged. Of the men who planned, the sailors who executed, and the ships which were engaged on that memorable expedition, scarcely one trace now remains, KornilofF, Nachimofi', Istomine, and their crews have disai^peared: their vessels now rest at the bottom of the roadstead of Sebastopol.
The Russians prefer being agents of their own destruction, and do not give the conqueror a chance of parading the fruits of his victory. We cannot delight the good people of Plymouth or Portsmouth by the sight of Russian liners and steamers. We can only drive the enemy to the option of destroying or of doing the work for him, and he invariably prefers the former. The Russians are fortifying themselves on the north side. The French are gone towards Baidar. Our Naval Brigade, after long, brilliant, and ill-requited services, is to be broken up at once. Friday, Septeniber 14. It is just one year this day since we landed at Kalamita Bay. In that time we have stormed the heights of the Alma, sustained the glorious disaster of Balaklava, fought the great light of Inkermaun, swept the sea of Azoff and its seaboard, wasted Kertch, and seized upon Yenikale — have witnessed the battle of the Tchernaya — have opened seven bombardments upon Sebastopol — have held in check every general and every soldier that Russia could spare; and now, after the endurance of every ill that an enemy at home and abroad could inflict upon us — after passing through the summer's heat and winter's frost — after being purged in the foe of sickness and death, repulse and disaster, and above all in the fiery glow of victory, the British standard floats over Sebastopol.
But our army is not the same. Physiologists tell us that we undergo perpetual change, and that not a bit of the John Smith of 1854 goes into the composition of the same respected individual in 1864, but we have managed to work up tens of hundreds of atoms in our British army between 1854 and 1855; and there are few indeed to be found in the present body corporate who landed in the Crimea a twelvemonth ago. Some regiments have been thrice renewed, others have been changed twice over. The change is not for the better — the old stufl" was better than the new. The silence in camp is almost alarming; were it not for a gun now and then between the town and the north side, and across the Tchernaya, it would be appalling.
Tliere is an EnglishFrench Commission sitting in the town. Colonel Windham is Commandant of the British portion of it. The 3rd BuflTs have received orders to occupy it, and the French garrison is strengthened. The enemj^ work all day at new batteries. The Guards are to make the roads between Balaklava and the camp. The Ai-my Works Corps, like all bodies of men who come out from England to this climato, have sufiered severely from disease and death; and up to the present time not less than sLxteen per cent, of the navvies and artificers have died from different forms of malady. One ship, which sailed some time ago from home with a considerahle numher of them, has not yet readied Balaklava, thouglx she is considerably beyond her time.