brigade commanders, besides a pretty fair sprinkling of
Crimean heroines, who looked as blooming and sprightly
as if they had been taking part in a pic-nic at Aldershot
or Chobham. In presence of his distinguished
company the great chef performed some remarkable
artistic feats with portions of the ordinary commissariat
ration fare, out of which, and in a very short time, he
produced gastronomic results which certainly surprised
everybody. The cooking apparatus made use of was
one of his newly-invented open-air hospital kitchens,
which for simplicity of construction and economy of
fuel appears to be the ne plus ultra of mechanical
contrivance. On this last feature of his kitchens M. Soyer
dilated with well-deserved force, showing how with one
of these stoves the food of 120 men may be prepared
with no greater expenditure of wood or charcoal than,
under the old and present clumsy and wasteful system,
is incurred in cooking for a twelfth part of that number.
The Duke of Newcastle appeared to be specially
interested in the proceedings, and, at their close, expressed
to M. Soyer his great interest in, and his unqualified
satisfaction with, all he had heard and witnessed.
General Simpson was no less complimentary, and
General Pelissier gave the chef a most flattering written
acknowledgment of the satislaction with which he too
had observed the experiments, and listened to an
exposition of how readily and usefully the system may be
applied to the entire cookery of the army. The object
of this establishment—consisting of a marquee and some
half a-dozen of bell-tents—is to cook for the hospitals of
the adjoining First Division, and train a couple of
cooks from each of the regiments now in camp, who
shall again instruct others, till each company shall have
its own cook, and thus he saved from a recurrence of
the thousand discomforts resulting last winter from the
old practice of each man preparing his own food. If
this reform be fully carried out, it will form one of the
greatest source of comforts to the troops throughout
the whole of the winter months, and will associate
M. Soyer's name with one of the greatest improvements
by which the army is likely to benefit."

The events between the battle of the Tchernaya, and
the combined attack, on the 8th instant, by the Allies
on the Malakoff and Redan, which immediately
preceded the fall of Sebastopol, may be briefly summed up.

The battle of the Tchernaya was followed by the
construction of a raft bridge by the enemy across the great
harbour,—a work which he had completed on the 28th
August, and had used to reinforce the garrison of the
southern side. For several days the Allies were kept
on the alert on the Tchernaya, lest the enemy should
pay them another sudden visit. The Highland brigade
were sent down from the front to reinforce the Sardinians;
and the cavalry and fifty guns were held in readiness
to act on the first appearance of the enemy. But
he did not appear; apprehensions on that score ceased;
and the Highlanders were moved back to the front.
Meanwhile, the enormous preparations for the bombardment
went on silently, secretly, and well; and every
hour brought the fatal moment nearer. The French
had pushed forward their sap, it is said, to the very edge
of the ditch round the Malakoff; but on the 1st
September the English were 150 yards from the salient of
the Redan. A heavy fire covered the working-parties,
whose picking and shovelling and piling of sand-bags
and gabions were much hindered by the brightness of
the nights. By accident, a Russian shell, falling on some
powder carelessly scattered in the Mamelon, set fire to
the great magazine there, and blew it up, killing and
wounding several officers and men, but doing no damage
to the batteries. The enemy also made a clever sortie,
and destroyed some gabions on the advanced parallel of
the right attack. But these small incidents did not
materially impede the progress of the works. The enemy
concentrated his troops between Fort Constantine and
the Mackenzie heights. On the bridge there was incessant
movement of horse, foot, and stores. Rumours
reached the Allied Generals of insubordination in
Sebastopol—of mutiny and the shooting of officers and men;
and it is said that the wounded were sent by a long
détour to Backshiserai, to avoid the camp, so that the
troops might not be discouraged by the numbers. The
enemy also threw up more earthworks on the north
side, with embrasures for guns. In the Allied camp it
was felt that the crisis of the siege was near at hand.
At length, the dawn of the 5th September saw the
opening of the fire from our mortar-batteries. It was
thenceforward continued without cessation by day and
by night. The bombardment seems to have been carried
on by a horizontal fire of artillery and a vertical fire of
mortars. But besides the terrible array of land-batteries
opposed to the east face, there were six English and six
French mortar-boats firing shells from Strelitska Bay
into the Forts Quarantine and Alexander. On the night
of the 5th, a shell set fire to a frigate in the harbour,
and the light of the blazing vessel illuminated the whole
camp. On the 7th, another ship was set on fire, and
burnt to the water's edge. The Russians seem to have
replied to the "infernal fire" of the Allies with
considerable animation; but the awful explosions that
broke forth here and there behind the earthworks told
how effectively the Allies pitched their missiles into the
Russian magazines. On the 8th, it was determined that
the enemy's works should be stormed; and accordingly,
a simultaneous attack was made by the French on the
Little Redan, which lies on the proper left of the
Malakoff itself, while the English directed their efforts
against the Great Redan.

The results of these assaults, and the events which
ensued, are detailed in the following despatches of the
English and French commanders.

Despatch from General Simpson, dated Sept. 9:—

"My lord, I had the honour to apprise your lordship
in my despatch of the 4th inst. that the engineer and
artillery officers of the allied armies had laid before
General Pelissier and myself a report recommending
that the assault should be given on the 8th inst., after
a heavy fire had been kept up for three days. This
arrangement I agreed to, and I have to congratulate
your lordship on the glorious results of the attack of
yesterday, which has ended in the possession of the
town, dockyards, and public buildings, and destruction
of the last ships of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.
Three steamers alone remain, and the capture or sinking
of these must speedily follow. It was arranged that at
12 o'clock in the day the French columns of assault
were to leave their trenches, and take possession of the
Malakhoff and adjacent works. After their success had
been assured and they were fairly established, the Redan
was to be assaulted by the English; the Bastion, Central,
and Quarantine Forts, on the left, were simultaneously
to be attacked by the French. At the hour appointed
our allies quitted their trenches, entered and carried the
apparently impregnable defences of the Malakhoff with
that impetuous valour which characterises the French
attack, and having once obtained possession, they were
never dislodged. The tricolor planted on the parapet was
the signal for our troops to advance. The arrangements
for the attack I intrusted to Lieutenant-General Sir
William Codrington, who carried out the details in
conceit with Lieutenant-General Markham. I determined
that the Second and Light divisions should have
the honour of the assault, from the circumstance of their
having defended the batteries and approaches against
the Redan for so many months, and from the intimate
knowledge they possessed of the ground. The fire of
our artillery having made as much of a breach as
possible in the salient of the Redan, I decided that the
columns of assault should be directed against that part,
as being less exposed to the heavy flanking fire by which
this work is protected. It was arranged between Sir
W. Codrington and Lieutenant-General Markham that
the assaulting column of 1000 men should be formed by
equal numbers of these two divisions, the column of the
Light Division to lead, that of the Second to follow.
They left the trenches at the preconcerted signal, and
moved across the ground preceded by a covering party
of 200 men, and a ladder party of 320. On arriving at
the crest of the ditch, and the ladders placed, the men
immediately stormed the parapet of the Redan, and
penetrated into the salient angle. A most determined and
bloody contest was here maintained for nearly an hour,
and, although supported to the utmost, and the greatest
bravery displayed, it was found impossible to maintain the
position. Your Lordship will perceive, by the long and