The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-15 00:00:00

874

native measures ; but I may remark that they are such as
leave small ground for fear that the enemy's attempt, if it
be made, will turn out a " surprise " to any but them-
selves : if grape, canister, musket•balls, and bayonets, can
repel them, their advance will be short and their retreat
rapid. The bridge of boats which they commenced
throwing across the harbour last week is all but completed,
and, from its breadth and apparent strength, will permit
of the passage of the heaviest field artillery. Whatever
may be the special purpose for which this structure is being
put together, some important purpose it has, and the fact
that it will be capable of greatly facilitating the movements
for some such attack as I have mentioned, gives a strong
degree of inferential proof to the information received from
our spies. We know, of course, that the main force of the
enemy's moveable soldiery is at present on the north side,
and, with the aid of this new bridge, fifteen or twenty
thousand of these, with any number of heavy field guns,
could be thrown into the town in less time than as many
hundreds could be ferried over by the few steamers in the
harbour, whilst, should the attempt prove a failure, a ready
and safe means of retreat would be available for both men
and materiel.

Yesterday I went down into our own advanced trenches,
and from the fifth parallel, the most forward of them, a
good view could be had of this latest of the enemy's
" improvements." Without the aid of a glass I could see
crowds of people passing and repassing from the north and
south sides of the harbour, whilst workmen were busily
engaged about the middle of the bridge in completing it.
Some fifty or sixty yards off the corner of the dockyard lay
the huge Twelve Apostles; and about midway between her
and the broken line of the mastheads of the sunken ships
runs the bridge, apparently some twenty feet in breadth,
and protected on either side by a low handrail. Sail boats
and barges, laden with various kinds of stores, were plying
between the two sides of the harbour ; and altogether, as
looked at through the rifle loophole from which I viewed
it, the whole scene appeared "a undisturbed and indus-
triously busy as if not a French of Ecgliah soldier had
foothold within the realms of the Czar. Fr;:m within
revolver-shot of the Redan a very prolonged or complete
survey was, of course, not convenient; but even with such
glimpses of the place as could be had from the parapet, I
saw enough to show me that, whatever may be the state of
the besieged's commissariat, they are as active as they
could be if fed upon the best. This fifth parallel being the
limit of our approach towards the town, one's optics can
only be exercised from it through the confined and rather
unsafe outlet of a rifle loophole ; and even through this in-
convenient opening the survey taken must be rapid and
spasmodic enough if one would avoid courting Minis com-
pliments from the sharp-eyed and watchful sportsmen some
hundred and fifty yards ahead. These loopholes are small
portholes, so to speak, through the upper portion of the
parapet of about four inches souare, and so distributed as
to be rendered as far as possible indistinguishable from the
accidental openings and inequalities between the sandbags
along the top. Narrow and concealed as they are, how-
ever, many a death•wound has been received through them,
and along the sides of not a few are to be seen traces of
the leaden missiles from the enemy's pieces. Still, from
these our men keep up a pretty constant fire into the em-
brasures of the Redan, and upon the lurking places of the
riflemen in its front—protected as the former are by the

thick network curtain 'of rope which hangs over each- gun,
it is rare, however, that a bullet can penetrate, unless
it happens to enter through the very limited opening left
for aiming the gun.
A walk through these parallels and their connecting zig-
zags is much more exciting than easy, since, in the first
place, the average lowness of the parapets compels a con-
stant stooping, which, as an Irish soldier remarked as I
passed along yesterday, " bedad, sir, is mighty sore upon
the small of the back." To be sure, " there's fine shootin',"
as the same lively observer added, by way of apology for
the situation ; but for those who, like myself, have a con-
stitutional dislike of gunpowder in all its combinations,
the " sport" has but few attractions, and one feeble chance
of knocking over a Russian could hardly ever reconcile me
to the fifty set-offs of being myself knocked over before I
could accomplish that praiseworthy and patriotic act. Eels,
however, are said to become reconciled in time to skinning,
and custom appears in like manner to render one insensible
to the exciting chances and contingencies attending a
twenty-four hours' turn in these trenches before Sebastopol.
With rifle bullets without number " pinging " over their
heads—and, not seldom, into them—round shot bowling
through them, and shell bursting on every side, our men
lie stretched out along the bottom of the trenches, some
sleeping, others spinning home-yarns or cracking lively
jokes, whilst others again, attentive to the suggestions of
a well-sharpened appetite, are clustered round small fires,
making coffee or superintending extemporised stews or
roasts—all with as much sang froid as if they wete pie-
nicing at Chobham or Aldershott. instead of doing duty
within fifty perches of the Round Tower and the Redan.

The Times publishes the following in a letter of
the same date:—
The state of tension in which we were kept during the
greater part of last week, in daily and almost hourly expec-
tation of an attack, has somewhat relaxed during the last
twenty-four hours, although every precaution continues to
be taken. On the night from Friday to Saturday our
commanders seem to have felt very confident that some-
thing serious would occur ; everybody was afoot, or in
readiness to turn out at an instant's notice, and dusty and
disgusted enough looked some of the staff after knocking
about all night in anticipation of a fight that came not.
The 56th Regiment, about eight hundred strong, having
arrived at Balaklava, were detained a day or two on board
ship, until their destination should be decided upon. It
had been intended to send them to Kertch ; but they have
finally been annexed to the first division. The army con-
tinues to get under arms before daybreak, cavalry and all.
Yesterday the patter arm turned out 2,960 Bzitish