and goes up to l\oad-quartcrs in order to enter upon his duties as Chief of the Staff, as soon as Sir Eichard Airey has left, and General Bai-nard takes the command of the Second Division. Some people here firmly helieve that the Czar is with the army of the Tchernaya, and that we shall yet have a fight. If it be well founded, His Majesty can indulge in a good look at the English troops, in which his family profess to take such an interest. A sergeant of the first battalion of the Rifle Brigade, who was taken prisoner in the trenches during the siege about this time twelvemonth, has recently been exchanged. He states that he was brought before one of the Grand Dukes at the time of his capture in Sebastopol, who addressed him in good English: — " You are of the Rifle Brigade?" " Yes, sir." " Ah!
I know your regiment well, and take great interest in them. Does Lawrence command yombattalion?" " No, sii'. Colonel Norcott?" " Ah! I know Norcott; did he command j^ou yesterday (which was the day of Inkermann), or Lawrence?" "Colonel Norcott did, sir; I'm of the first battalion." "And where were you engaged?" " In the trenches, sir." The Grand Duke then inquired after several ofiicers by name, and said to the sergeant, " Well, I'll see that you are well provided for; I like the Rifle Brigade, and have always taken an interest in them." The sergeant was well taken care of, and so far fared better than the prisoners who were sent from Simpheropol to Kharkoff". CHAPTER XXXVII.
EELAXATIOX. Extraordinary mildness of the season — The abandonment of the siege advocated by some — An old soldier's advice — The flank march — Sir George Cathcart's sagacity — The prize once within our grasp — Excellent condition of the English troops — Army friendships — The hospital kitchens — M. Soycr's stove — Ingenious contrivances — Decorations of the oflicers' huts — Thefts — Sliocking murder of an English sailor near Kasatch — Skill of the English army surgeons — Wonderful operations— Miss Nightingale's attention to tlic comforts of the Sardinian sick — Making arrow-root. Before SEBASToroL, November 20. EiTHEE last year was remarkable in the annals of the Crimea for its severity, or we are enjoying a season of exceptionable mildness. Storms have lowered over us and passed away; dark skies have threatened us and melted into iloods of golden sunJieains.
The wind seems to be busied in tossing the French steamers at sea and keeping the mail late, in which it succeeds very eft'ectually, so that our letters are behind time with the greatest regularity. The country is open in every direction to carriage, man, or beast; the trenches are dry; in fact, th? weather presents contrasts of endless variety to that which prevailed last year, and affords ground for infinite speculation and comment. There is no reason, however, to suppose that the English army would have had much reason to congratulate itself on the fact that the clemency of the season had averted the evils which want of roads, excessive fatigue, and a false position would have entailed upon them, inasmuch as it is certain the bad weather paralysed the enemy, cut oif their reserves, impeded their transport of food, and of reinforcements, and prevented their making another attempt — not at Inkermann, of which they had to their cost learnt the strength, but from the Traktir bridge, or at some other point of the Tchernaya then in their possession, from which they could have debouched into the plain of Balaklava, and made a grand attack on the rear of omlines.
Although those lines were greatly strengthened, and the profile altered and improved, in November last, when rumom-s to the efiect that the Russians were gathering a force towards Baidar, with the intention of assaulting us, prevailed, they were far from being perfect or unassailable. We now learn that the country between Tchongar, Perekop, and SImpheropol was in such a state that it was with the utmost difficulty the garrison of Sebastopol could be fed, and that very strong reinforcements were kept for weeks waiting at Odessa, Nicholaieff", and Cherson, till thej'- coiUd march into the Crimea, and were, finally, detained till the spring of this year. But for these impediments, the Eussians would have had a prodigious army about Sebastopol this time twelvemonth, or early in December, and if they were indisposed to try another Inkermann, they could certainly have pressed us much harder in the trenches and wearied our men by strong and repeated sorties, to which, as it now appears, their hard-worked and exhausted garrison was not adequate.