were seized with a panic, many of them threw down
their arms, and all fled in disorder. Their leader alone
showed courage. When his men commenced to waver
he seized one of their muskets, and, waving it in the
air, tried to rally them. While holding it in this
position he received a ball in the elbow, and at once
took the weapon in the other hand. He was thus vainly
trying to restore courage to his men and urge them
forward, when two of the sharpshooters took aim at
him. One of the balls wounded him severely in the neck
and face, breaking his lower jaw. He then tried to
retreat, but was made prisoner, and brought, together
with one of his men, into camp. One man killed was
the only casualty in Lieutenant Webb's party.

A piece of gallant conduct on the part of Mr. Hewett,
mate of the Beagle, has been reported by Captain
Lushington, the Commander of the Naval Brigade
before Sebastopol, to Admiral Dundas. Captain
Lushington, in a letter dated the 28th of October, says:—

"I beg to call your attention to the spirited conduct
of Mr. Hewett, the mate of the Beagle, in charge of the
right Lancaster battery, now containing one gun. On
the 26th instant the Russians made a sortie in force—
about 8,000 men—on our right, placing our Lancaster
gun in jeopardy; indeed some skirmishers approached
within 300 yards of it, pouring in a sharp fire of Minié
rifles. Some mistake occurred in the orders of the
officer commanding the picket, and the word was passed
to spike the gun and retreat, but Hewett replied 'that
such an order did not come from Captain Lushington,
and he would not do so till it did.' (He was aware I
was in the vicinity). He then pulled down the parapet,
and with the assistance of some soldiers, got his gun
round, and poured a most destructive fire of grape into
a large column of Russians, and, on their retreating
from the British troops, followed them down the hill
with solid 68lb. shot, fired with fatal precision. I am
happy to say there were no casualties among the sailors,
and report says only 71 among the troops. The Russian
loss was very severe, as we saw the bodies lying on the
hill, but I am not in a position to give you an authentic
account."

The Lords of the Admiralty, as a mark of their
approbation of his gallant conduct, have promoted Mr.
Hewett to the rank of Lieutenant.

A private of the 33rd Regiment—Duke of Wellington's
—by name M'Guire, has attracted the notice of the
Commander-in-Chief by an act of daring. He was in
advance as a sharpshooter, and was made prisoner. He
was being marched away between two Russian soldiers,
a third being in rear, when, seeing his guard for a
moment careless and looking in another direction, he
suddenly seized a loaded musket from one of the two
men at his side and discharged it at him. No sooner
had he done this than he swung round the but-end,
and with it struck the second man on his other side a
blow on the head which felled him to the ground. The
third Russian decamped, and M'Guire effected his
escape. He was at the time within a hundred yards of
the Russian lines. His own Minié, which had been
taken from him, was being carried by one of the two
men by his side; but he knew this had been discharged,
and therefore seized a musket from the other soldier,
which fortunately turned out to be loaded. The affair
was witnessed by a sergeant of the rifle brigade, and
in consequence of his report, Lord Raglan awarded
M'Guire a gratuity of £5.

Letters from the French camp frequently speak of a
small body of skilled riflemen, called francs-tireurs. A
recent letter contains the following details respecting
them:—

"I must tell you what the francs-tireurs are. There
are two companies of them, each composed of 150 men,
chosen from amongst the best marksmen of the
Chasseurs de Vincennes. In the night, they creep in front of
the entrenchments, dig holes and place themselves in
them as well as they can. Then they fire at the Russian
artillerymen. They have already killed so many that
the Russians now close in their embrasures with a sort
of double door, which is ball-proof. But they are
obliged to open it to point their gun and fire, and no
sooner is this done than 20 balls whistle through it.
The Russians have sustained such losses that they were at
times driven to despair—raising their guns from behind
they fired volleys of grape shot at their disagreeable
visitors. Nevertheless, the latter have succeeded in
extinguishing all the first line of their batteries. I say
first line, because there are several others in the rear,
the part of the town which faces us being an inclined
plane on which batteries have been raised in lines, one
above the other. That our francs-tireurs have done
good execution is evident from the fact that, in the
evening of the 26th General de Martimpré, chief of the
general staff, received a note informing him that the
Russian fire had become uncertain, and that artillerymen
were so scarce that the guns had to he served by
the infantry. Express no surprise at the word uncertain,
for from the 6th to the 17th, the Russian gentlemen
did not cease to point their guns at us as at a target,
whilst we did not deign to answer them even by a
musket shot. They consequently attained such precision
that the day on which we unmasked our batteries, their
balls entered our embrasures as if cast by the hand. One
ball went into the very mouth of a cannon, but was too
large to penetrate more than a third. It, however, stuck
fast. This was considered so curious that the gun was
carried to the General's tent to be shown to him."

The accounts of the battle concur in describing the
atrocious conduct of the Russians towards the wounded.
One writer says:—"Colonel Seymour, of the Guards,
and a great number of brave fellows, were murdered in
cold blood by the Russians while lying wounded on the
field of battle. It appears that among the prisoners
taken by us is a Russian major, who was clearly seen by
our men stabbing the wounded men, and encouraging his
men to join him in the assassination, and when the fellow
was caught it was with difficulty that the just
indignation of our men could be restrained, and he certainly
would have deserved his fate if he had met the fate he
had inflicted on others. After the action he was tried
by a court-martial formed of a committee of officers, on
the charge of having encouraged his men to kill our
wounded. He was found guilty on the clearest evidence,
and sentenced to be hanged, but the sentence was not
put in execution, as it might be made the excuse for
reprisals. Lord Raglan has, however, written to Prince
Menschikoff on the subject, and it is to be hoped
that his remonstrance will have the effect of putting
a stop to proceedings so revolting to humanity
and so disgraceful to the age we live in." Another
report is as follows:—"The Russians behaved with
barbarous cruelty to our wounded; every fallen man was
bayoneted. One English officer was wounded slightly,
but unable to leave the spot with his men, as they
retired for awhile overwhelmed. When our troops
recovered the ground, they found the poor fellow
stabbed all over and stripped! One Russian officer was
seen to halt and limp about the field; he had been
wounded, but he too was stabbing the fallen with his
sword! An orderly of the Duke of Cambridge went up
to him and took him prisoner, and his Royal Highness
was heard to promise the wretch that he would do his
best to have him shot for his inhumanity. It is to be
feared that this Russian barbarity provoked our men to
give no quarter. They would throw down their arms,
and, calling themselves Christians, beg for mercy; and
if they were spared they would take up their muskets
and shoot the man who had saved them. The French
Zouaves also took no prisoners."

The latest intelligence from Balaklava to the 14th, by
way of Vienna, states that, since the 5th, nothing remarkable
had taken place. A telegraphic dispatch from
Constantinople has been published, in which it is said that
on the 13th the Russians attacked the French lines, but
were repulsed with great loss on both sides. But this
has not been confirmed; and besides, no Russian bulletin
has announced loss on the side of the allies at the date
of the 13th, although it would have been easy to do so
several days ago.

A letter from Constantinople, dated the 9th, says:
"Since the 1st of this month there has been redoubled
activity in the arsenal. The Porte is making the most
strenuous exertions in order to send reinforcements to
the allies in the Crimea. Ten guns of the largest calibre
are on the average sent off to them every day, with two
hundred cartridges for each piece. The Sultan sent for