The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-10 00:00:00

LONDON, MOB DAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 10, 1855.

PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE.

CAMP BEFORE SEBASTOPOL, AUG. 27.

The state of.tension in which we were kept during
the greater part of last week, in daily and almost hourly
expectation of an attack, has somewhat relaxed during
the last 24 hours,' although every precaution cntitii!ues
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. It was doubtless in consequence of the severe
extra duty thus entailed on officers as well as men that
the ceremony of the investiture of the Order of the Bath
was postponed until 2 o'clock to-day, when it is to take
place with due pomp at General Simpson's head-quarters.

On the 18th, however, very few of our poor fellows
reached even thus far the desolating storm ef
the enemy's fire having swept them down be-
fore they could cross the intervening space.
Beyond this hedgerow of stakes runs the line of
earthworks which connects the Redan with the Malak-
hoff hill ; and a short way higher up, as the eye traces
the ascent of the slope, are seen the mixed gabions and
sandbags which form the inner face of the parapets of
the new French trenches in front of the Mamelon. At
first glance the distance between the moat advanced of
these saps and the Round Tower seems not more than
fifty yards, hut it is in reality above a hundred, and that
a space, too, of the most broken and difficult ground over
which attacking troops could have to move. Narrow also
as is this belt of ground between the besieged and thei.
assailants, the former have very boldly occupied a portion
of it with their sharpshooters, and from these deadly
marksmen the French suffer heavily. The Mamelon
plays upon their hiding.places with grape and shell;
but under cover of theiinequalities of the ground, and
the additional shelter which they have managed to
throw up for themselves, they hold out, and daily and
nightly play havoc amongst our ally's gunners, both
within the Mamelon itself and the battery in advance.
The surface features of the ground in this direction ha-v-
-been so often described in your columns that I need not
at present repeat the sketch ; with the aid of a glass the
whole can be seen front far behind, say either our own
Twenty-one Battery or the French Victoria Redoubt,
with quite as great clearness as from this nearer and less
safe point of observation with the naked eye. This fifth
parallel being the limit of our approach towards the
town, one's optics oan only be exercised from it through
the confined and rather unsafe outlet of a rifle loophole
and even through this inconvenient opening the survey
taken must be rapid and spasmodic enough if one woule
avoid courting Minie compliments 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 square, and so distributed as t(
be rendered as far as possible indistinguishable from
the accidental openings and inequalities between th,
sand-bags along the top. Narrow and concealed a,
they are, however, many a death-wound has been re.
ceived through them, and along the sides of not a few
are
.to be seen traces of the leaden missiles from tilt
enemy's pieces. Still, from these our men keep up t
pretty constant fire into the embrasures of the Redan, an,.
upon the lurking places of the riflemen in its front—
protected as the former are by the thick network curtain
of rope which bangs over each gun, it is rare, however.
that a bullet can penetrate, unless it happens to enter
through the very limited opening left fir aiming the gut,

neighbourhood of the monastery Of St. George ; but—
I don't know whether from change of diet, or because
they were already too far gone—many of them have
died, and the two valleys, so sweet formerly, are now
anything but sweet, for the carcasses are left lying
about or thrown among the bushes without any vultures
to feast upon them. If one remembers the host of those
scavengers which infested us during the winter iu this
part it seems strange that there is not one seen now.
Whether they have been disgusted by the numbers of
paid Tartar and Croat scavengers enlisted by the allied
armies, and feared to starve, or whether they found
more choice morsels on the Russian side, where there
may be likewise a good deal to excite their gluttony, or,
lastly, whether they are driven away by the heat I can-
not tell.

CAMP OF THE ALLIED ARMIES ON THE
TOHERNATA, Aug. 2.
We are still living in continual apprehension of a Rus.

Sian attack, although no more is heard of the day when
it is to take place. As sailors at the signs of an immi-
-I:ent storm make everything snug and shorten sail, si)
we draw in the more exposed pots, strengthen our pa-
ition, up reserves, and try to provide for every
emergency which might occur.