March 11. At one this afternoon the staff of the allied and Russian armies again met at Traktir-bridge — this time to sign the conditions of tlie armistice, which have been finally agreed to, the Eussians having, as I am informed, shown themselves tolerably pliant. The day was raw, dull, and disagreeable, with a sharp northerly breeze blowing, but nevertheless a considerable number of English, French, and Sardinian officers found their way to the bridge, doubtless in hopes of a repetition of the canter of the 29th of Februaiy; but if that was the bait that lured them there they were completely disappointed. This time there w^as no scouring the plain and gossiping with videttes; the aqueduct was the limit, observance oi' v/hich was enforced by a chain of Zouave sentries patrolling to and fro.
A Kussian picket was stationed at about rifle shot distance beyond the river, along the further bank of which Cossack and Dragoon videttes were posted at short intervals. There was more variety in the Russian troops this time than last; some of the cavalry were in scarlet, and others in light blue, and some wore the grey great-coat. There was nothing else of any interest to observe, and most of the persons whom curiosity had led to the spot soon gi'ew tired of standing at the edge of a ditch, and gazing at a distant handful of Muscovites; so they turned their horses, and tried to warm themselves hj a canter back to the camp. CHAPTER XLIV. Complete destruction of the city — Assemblies at the Tehcniaya — The systemcf purchase considered — The restingplace of the brave.
Camp before.Sebastofol, March 22. For the last week our armj^ has been cultivating its tastes for the drama, improving its acquaintance with the Russians, preparing for active service, if needs should be, in the field, and organizing the Great Sebastopol Spring Meeting, which will take place on Jlonday next by the banks of the Tchernaya, not very far distant from the scene of the memorable charge of the Light Cavalry Brigade on the 25th of October, 1854. The demolition of trenches, works, and houses in the city continues daily and incessantly, so that the south side will scon be as desolate and ruinous as Thebes or Palmyra. Everjr hour long trains of men pass by with beams of timber and planks on their shoulders, which are taken out of the remains of the White Buildings.
Had fire been rained down from Heaven on the devoted city its annihilation could not liavo been more complete. The stranger who halts to s\irvey it IVom the neighbouring heights, deceived by the whitewashed and plastered walls of the houses, might think that Sebastopol was still a city; but when he walks throngh its grass-grown, deserted streets, formed by endless rows of walls alone, of roofless shells of houses, in which not one morsel of timber can be seen, from threshold to eaves; when he beholds great yawning craters, half tilled with mounds of cut stone, heaped together in irregular masses; when he gazes on tumuli of disintegrated masonry, — once formidable forts, and now shaken, as it were, Into dust and powder; when he stumbles over the fragments of imperial editices, to peer down into the great gulfs, choked up with rubbish, which now mark the site of the grand docks of the Queen of the Euxine; and beholds the rotting masts and hulls of the sunken navy which was nurtured there; when he observes that what the wrath of the eneui}'^ has spared is fast crumbling away beneath the fire of its friends, and that the churches where they worshipped, the theatres, the public monuments, are specially selected for the practice of the Russian gunners, as though they were emulous of running a race in destruction with the allied armies, — he will no doubt come to the conclusion that the history of the world affords no such authentic instance of the annihilation of a great city.
It is hard to believe that the site can ever be made available for the erection of houses or the construction of docks; but I am by no means certain that the immense resources in the command of manual labour possessed by the Government of Russia, of which this very struggle has afforded us all such striking proofs, in the Quarantine Battery, the Bastion Centrale, the Bastion du Mat, the Redan, the Mamelon, and the MalakhofF, may not be made available in time to clear away these modern ruins, and to rebuild houses, theatres, palaces, churches, forts, arsenals, and docks as before. To prevent any successful attempt to use the old materials in the docks, our engineers are now busy in destroying the coping stones of granite and the larger masses of stones in the masonry; but in the Inkermann ravines there arc inexhaustible supplies of building material, which can be floated by the Tchernaya into the waters of the harbour with very little trouble.