The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-28 00:00:00

to you. The first and second I shall pass over, as
we did but little in them ; but the third, on Suns
day, the sth inst., was somewhat different. The
enemy commenced the attack at daylight in 'ma•
earnest, but they were all drunk, or very nearly
so, and they fought like 'good uns.' We took the
right, and the second division took the left, when
we found that the Russians were about 50,000
strong, and us poor fellows had to keep them back
for a long seven hours without the least support I
Oh ! shame, shame on a person whom I dare not
name. For six hours did our men keep looking
behind for support after being at it so long, but
there was none for the Guards, and we had nearly
lost all our men, having only forty lett with the
colours, and the enemy all round us, when we
charged and broke through them, for we had shot
away all our ammunition, when a French regiment
luckily came down to support us, and very quickly .
sent Mr. Rush to the right about, and indeed right
into Sebastopol, when our poor fatigued men got
into a redoubt of ours for a rest, which was out of
reach of the enemy's shot. Our most noble and
brave duke rode up to us, with the tears running
down his cheeks, and took hold of the colours, and
said, "My brave Guards, I never expected to
have seen you again, or your colours, for I made
sure that you
were all lost." Well, two divisions
stood on our left, and never fired a shot, whilst
the Guards had to battle the watch for seven hours
upon an empty belly.
aeain took them in,
But thanks be to God, we
and the battle ended about
four o'clock. •I am sorry to say
that we have lost
almost all our men. Some companies have lost
from forty to fifty. My own company have lost
thirty-eight killed and wounded, and out of the
•
three regiments of Guards we cannot muster 1,000
men altogether ; so you may guess
the horrid
slaughter which was made amongst us. At one
time each of these regiments was 1,100 strong, and
now the three cannot muster 1,000 ! I have to
thank the Almighty for allowing me to escape un-
hurt, for we had five full sergeants killed, send
almost all the others either killed or wounded, azia
I was-left by myself with the company, and God
only knows how I escaped, for the shot_ and shell
flew about like showers of rain. I am sorry to
say that we also lost three of our generals killed and
four wounded ; in short, all our best officers •
, we have lisat, but the papers will give you better
Information of _these facts than I can procure, being
too much employed at this time to take note of
such thingsc A violent storm on the 16th blew
every tent in camp down, and I had just finished
a long letter to you when the wind took it and all
my stamps away, and quickly followed it all our
fur caps, camp kettles, mess kettles, and kits, and
you would have laughed to have seen it, but I
couldn't, for I got everything wet through, and
I had to lay in it all the night. About 4 o'clock
the wind dropped, when we put up our tents again,
and they gave us plenty of rum, to keep the cold
out. We have now been throwing shot and shell
into Sebastopol for five weeks, and we may do so
for twelve months longer, and then not take it, for
England and France have been regularly taken in.
We, however, expect 30,000 French troops every
day, and as soon as they arrive we shall storm,
and, I hope, take the place, but as yet we have not
troops enough, for it would take 100,000 to do it
properly, but it must be taken before we quit it,
or never ; and you well know that the allied army
will lose every man before they quit the ground.
It is expected that when it is taken, what there is
left of the Guards will come home to England,
and I don't care how soon that may be. The wea-
ther is now very fine, and not so very cold, but I
am told that it soon will be. I am made a full
sergeant, and am just going on guard, on which I
hope the Almighty will still spare me to have the
pleasure of seeing you all again, but if I should be
1
killed, I shall die in a noble cause—fighting for my
Queen and country."

FROM A MARINE.

"Heights of Balaklava, Nov. 24.

" I hare not had my clothes off to sleep since I
have been here, and I shan't if we stop for six
months. We sleep with our belts on and sixty
rounds of ammunition, and our muskets loaded by
our side. There are 16 of us crammed in a small tent
that was made to hold 8, and when it rains we may
as well go outside as stop in, for the water comes
through in larger drops thaa it would be if there
was no tent at all. They may do very well for
Chobham to please the cockneys, but they don't.
please us. I don't think the peop'.e in England
know how we are served, but I shan't say any
more about it ; it is no part of a soldier's duty to
grumble, and thank God I am able to go through
le even if the hardship were ten times as severe.
We had a dreadful storm the other day ; all our
tents were blown down, there was not one left
standing. Two or three of the Rifle corps were
killed ' • some of our men were severely bruised,
our colonel got his leg dislocated, and a great
many lost all their 'lathes except what they bad
on. I lost nothing. I felt quite at home '• I have
seen plenty of storms at sea, and I was glad of the
chance of seeing ono in land ; but I am sorry to
say there has bees very great destruction amongst
the shipping. I have not had a shave these ten
weeks, and get a wash once in three or four days,
my shirt once in fourteen days, but I feel quite
comfortable, and as happy as the day is long. I
get three pints of the best rum in a week. What
do you think of that ? But still for all that, I
should like a quart or two of the Bath beer ; I
know I could go into it. * * I hear that the
ladies of Bath have kindly sent out some old linen
for the use of the wounded. I can assure you
that simple things are not passed unnoticed
amongst all of us ; and if I should be so lucky as
only to get wounded, I really think I should not
feel any pain, if I were to know that the linen
came from the ladies of Bath. You can tell
Bob I have got a slap-up great coat for him,
that I got one night when I was out on picquet
—the man that had it that night will never want
it again, for he was not able to carry away a
small bit of lead I made him a present of."

MURDER IN PARIS.

The Faubourg Montmartre was on Friday the scene
ef la terrible clime. A young woman, Zelia Roussel,
lived for ten years with a gentleman, but a few months
ago he was obliged to separate from her, owing to a
change in his position. He, however, was accustomel
to go to her every day to take his meals. She oocupieft
at No. 21, in the Faubourg, an apartment on the fourth
storey. At about six o'clock on Friday the gentleman
went as usual to dine. He opened the outer door with
a key he always carried w WI him, but he found the inn, r
door fastened, and received no answer to his kr oc' s.
He went down to the concierge to ask after his mistress,'
and was told she was most likely at home, as half an
hour before she had bean seen returning with her pro-
visions for the dinner. On this he went up stairs aid
stood on the landing to wait—reading his newspaper in
the meantime. After reading some time, he became
impatient, and he begged a boy wl-o happened to pass
to go for a locksmith. A little later a man came from
the upper storey, and hurried past him in great baste. This
man seemed anxious to avoid observation. The gentle•
man called to him when be was on the third storey,with the
intention of asking him to tell the concierge to send for A
locksmith, but the stranger returned no reply. At the
same monitit sem° one was heard to say on the fifth storey,
" It is very strange ! there is blood !" The gentleman
asked what that meant, and was informed that the *an
who had just gone down stairs had entered the staircase
by a window, and had left traces of blood on it and on
the wall. The person who saw him added that he had
asked him where he came from, but be had merely re-
plied, " The deuce ! I have hurt my head !" and a' he
had supposed that he was a workman who had been am•
ployed in some job, he had not stepped him. On this
the gentleman began to fear that a crime had been oom-
mitted, and be begged the person to accompany him into
the young woman's apartment. The door, which had
been locked, was now open. He and his companion felt
something wet beneath their feet, and having got a light,
they, to their horror, found themselves in the midst of a
pool of blood. In the bedroom all the drawers sere
open, and the linen and other objects which they, had
contained were found scattered about the floor. Near
the door was a basket containing the provisions which
Mlle. Zelia bad bought for her dinner, and by the side
of it her purse, containing a small sum. In the kitchen
the young woman was found lying dead, with her
clothes turned up over her bead. On removing tbem_
the head was found almost severed from the body. The
cries of the two men caused the neighbours to assemble;
and the commissary of the police of the district,
I. Lanet, was sent for. It was ascertained that
several articles of jewellery had been stolen. It is sup
posed that the assassin, having ascended the staircase
left by the young woman, and bad
unseen by the one
o ge, ad entered the apartment by
commenced a search after the valu-
ablesuPpcse I was to be found
ti
mb the oeudptireaertpedel
yor
tor,property
lie
had
that he then murdered her, in order to facilitate his
there ; that she, hearing a noise,
escape, and had dragged the bodly'adintgo"theetkithcihmen;.
gtfnteer
uppe r
tpoe t
tha tei nfigfththestocireinyi,etanhde
phaassdi,ng through a
it appeared,
window had climbed on to the roof, in the hope prol a-
bly of escaping by some other house ; but not being able
to do so had returned through the window and descended
the stairs, as already stated. A razor, stained with
blood, was found on the roJ, end a number of other
circumstances calculated to lead to the arrest of the
murderer have been brought to light.

PUNISHMENT OF A CAPTAIN OF ♦N EMIGRANT Sal?
FOR NEGLIGENCE.—At the Liverpool Borough Session■
yesterday, Captain James Tullis Peat, late of the Erni•
grant flip Golden Era, from Melbourne to Liverpool,
cmvicted the previous Saturday of drankenness and
neglect of duty on her last passage home, thereby endan-
geriDg the lives of the crew and passengers, was sea•
tonced to be imprisoned for oiOt calendar month'.
•