but the French General got the honours of the
day, for as he rode along the fronts of the regiments,
the men spontaneously cheered him in nearly every
instance. The 77th and 88th gave three diabolical yells,
which rent the very skies, as he passed, at which General
Canrobert was good enough to smile and stroke his
moustache, and say, 'Comme c'est charmant ce 'cheer'
Anglais!' and he is said to have been highly complimentary
to Sir George Brown and his Brigadiers Airey
and Buller respecting the air and appearance of the
troops. After the inspection, Sir George Brown, who
has all the vigour and personal activity of a man of
five-and-twenty, rode off to Devno, to look out for a
site for the new camp of this division, which, however,
as has been seen, it is not likely we shall want for some
time longer; and as he returned, I believe, to Varna
the same evening, he must have ridden 40 miles ere he
left the saddle, though the day was excessively hot and
suffocating when the wind went down."

A staff-officer (whose letter, dated July 4, appears in
the Times), gives an account of a visit from Omar Pasha
on his way from Silistria to Varna to consult with the
French and English generals:—"About 2 o'clock a
Turkish soldier arrived, announcing the approach of
Omar. We at once mounted our horses and galloped
forward to meet him. We soon saw, winding down one
of the ravines, two britzkas and four, escorted by a
squadron of cavalry. We met them at a little hamlet
on the river side. The cavalcade was an interesting one.
The postboys were artillery drivers, armed to the teeth.
Omar Pasha, on alighting, went into one of the houses,
and there we were all introduced to him. He is a fine,
handsome man, of about 58 years of age, with gray hair
and moustache and a closely trimmed beard; the head
round and well formed, with an agreeable expression of
countenance; his smile is very pleasing. He has a
remarkably good figure, svelte, and very upright and
soldierlike, and is about 5ft. 9in. in height. He told us
that the Russians were, in all, eight divisions; that they
were retreating from Kalarasch, opposite Silistria, and
were nearly all gone. They were moving, he said, in
the direction of Brailow, with a view to the occupation
of an intrenched position on the River Sereth, which
separates Wallachia from Moldavia. You will see that
this is their shortest route into the Russian territory. He
told us that the Russian cavalry, of which we had heard
so much, was immensely exaggerated, that they were
very slow, and with difficulty got into movement. He
added, 'One of your regiments would ride down four
of theirs.' He evidently thought very lightly of that
arm, and he is well able to judge, having in former days
himself charged them. He was accompanied by a Captain
Simmons, in our Engineer corps, who did him great
service at Silistria, and appears to be his right-hand man.
He told us that the defence of Silistria was a wonderful
one, that the Turks fought to admiration; but that, for
all that, he could not understand why the Russians failed
to take it, for the outwork where all the fighting took
place was nothing but a low, narrow breastwork, with
a very small ditch in front that a horseman might ride
over. Deserters, he told us, had spoken in strong terms
of the misery and disease in the Russian army, and they
calculated their loss in killed and wounded, sickness, &c.,
amounted to 30,000. On the eve of breaking up the
siege the Russian order was that the army should retreat,
in consequence of the threatening attitude of Austria.
After our conference, Omar Pasha reviewed our troops
encamped in the valley; and you never saw men turn
out quicker and cleaner, or move better. He made the
cavalry charge, and rode with them to see the pace they
could go. He is now at Varna, discussing matters with
Lord Raglan and Marshal St. Arnaud."

Omar Pasha, after his consultation with the allied
generals, had another review of British troops in
returning from Varna, which is thus described in the
Times: "About 2 o'clock Omar Pasha's travelling
carriages, escorted by Turkish cavalry, appeared in
sight. The Pasha, mounting one of his led chargers,
and followed by a small suite of aides, pipe-bearers, &c.,
rode up towards the review ground, and was received by
Lord Raglan, Sir George Brown, Brigadier-General
Scarlett, the Brigadiers of Division, &c. He was
dressed simply, as on the first day he visited us, except
that he wore a star on his left breast, and he seemed
vivacious and pleased as he entered into conversation
with the English generals. After a time the Dragoons
went past in splendid order, and then the two troops of
Royal Horse Artillery and the battery came by at
a trot, which was gradually quickened into a dashing
gallop, so that the 6lb. and 9lb. guns, and carriages,
and tumbrils went hopping and bounding over the
sward. The evolutions were simple but effective and
imposing. A charge in line, which shook the very
earth as men and horses flew past like a whirlwind,
wreathed in clouds of dust, particularly excited the
Pasha's admiration, and he is reported to have said,
'With one such regiment as that I would ride over
and grind into the earth four Russian regiments at
least.' He was particularly struck by the stature of
the men and the size and fine condition of the horses,
both dragoon and artillery, but these things did not
lead him away from examining into the more important
question of their efficiency, and he looked closely
at accoutrements, weapons, and carriages. At his
request Sir George Brown called a dragoon and made
him take off his helmet. The Pasha examined it
minutely, had the white cover taken off, and requested
that the man should be asked whether it was comfortable
or not. The soldier replied that it was; and it is to be
hoped that the Turkish cavalry may get something
better than the wretched fez to put on their heads now
that the Pasha sees that brass and leather can be
fashioned so as to protect the skull without inconvenience
to the owner. The usual field-day manœuvres
were performed by the artillery. They did just what
they are wont to do when his Royal Highness Saxe-
some-place-or-other visits Woolwich, moving like one
man, wheeling as if men, horses, and guns formed part
of one machine, sweeping the plain with the force and
almost the speed of steam-engines, unlimbering guns,
taking them to pieces, putting them together, and
vanishing in columns of dust. The inspection was over
at half-past 3 o'clock, to the great delight of the men;
and Omar Pasha, who repeatedly expressed his
gratification and delight at the spectacle, retired with the
generals to Sir George Brown's quarters, and in the
course of the evening renewed his journey to Schumla."

The principal occurrence in the Black Sea has been
an affair, on the 15th of June, between a division of the
Russian squadron at Sebastopol, and some cruisers of
the allied fleets. The Russian ships had sailed out of
the harbour, and after firing on the cruisers, had
retired into it. An engineer on board the Terrible,
one of the cruisers, gives this account of the action:—
"On nearing the fortifications, we observed six steamers,
also several line-of-battle ships, frigates, &c., sailing out
of the harbour. After we had passed the stronghold,
the six steamers pursued us. They were crowded with
troops. We steamed on full power to windward, as we
wanted to draw them from their own street, as it were,
so as to be able to give it them right and left, and to be
out of the reach of the sailing-vesssels at the same time.
They chased us for nearly an hour, when the Terrible
fired a shot from her stern-gun, which fell within a few
yards of the admiral's ship. The fire was instantly
returned by the enemy; but our captain, not being
senior officer, was compelled by the captain of the
Furious to cease firing until they came closer. In a
few minutes more the action became general; I must
inform you that at this period things looked anything
but pleasant; the captain giving the chief engineer his
private papers to burn, if anything should befall him,
the chief giving his papers to his assistants, and I in full
uniform, all ready to go as prisoner-of-war to Sebastopol.
But a few of the Terrible's shells soon made the
six heavy steamers pull up and steam their utmost
towards the vessels then sailing out to their assistance.
Imagine three steamers compelling six to run! We
chased them as far as we could without engaging the
whole of the fleet. Thus terminated the first naval
engagement at sea by steamers. I must say they fired
some excellent shots, well directed, but happily none of
them struck us. I saw very distinctly one of our shots
carry a great part of the admiral's ship's paddle-box
away, and I think it was one of our shells that set the