The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-06 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, August a•
The Queen, accompanied by Princess Louise,
Prince Leopold, and Princess Beatrice left Osborne
this afternoon for Switzerland.
Her Majesty and their Royal Highnesses, with
the suite in attendance, embarked on board the
Royal yacht Victoria and Albert, Captain the Price
of Leiningen, in Osborne Bay, so, after
12 o'clock, and shortly afterwards left for Cher'

Bourg.
Prince and Princess Louis of Hesse took lease
of her Majesty at Osborne Pier.

The Princess of Wales drove out yesterday'
,ended by the Hon. Mrs. Hardinge.

SIEGE OPERATIONS AT CRATIWI.

One of those very pretty siege attacks both bY,
land and sea for which Chatham is celebrated at
the cicse of the drill season was made on the
" lines" yesterday in the presence of a great
muster of spectators. The reason for these win°l
siege reviews at Chatham, which are always bean'
tiful and sometimes of the greatest interest, mg
be told in a few words. Chatham is the finishing
school for the Royal Engineers, and there the las,,.
practical touches are given to their mosi, technics!
education. There is taught pract'cally what 1°
almost always elsewhere taught theoretic:lllY.

real siege on the formidable Chatham lines is
undertaken—sometimes on the sea side, sale-
times on the land. Every year the place of at'
tack is different, and therefore, also, is the plan
of defence. But both assailants and defenders, 35
far as the works go, do precisely what they would
do in actual warfare, and the works of attack are ite
well and solidly completed as were those before
Sebastopol itself. When all these works, however,
are done it is usual to utilise them by a great sieg°
attack on the lines, and by blowing up part of that
new-made works with not too heavy charges, but

enough to illustrate the action of mines.
Yesterday the programme included all these feat°
of battle, but it was on the whole rather too Pre-
tentious for the handful of men at disposal. "
thin red line" was thin everywhere, and at Places
so thin as to be quite imaginary. The whole force
under arms, both besiegers and defenders, was 11°t
more than 4,000 men, and the work to be doe",,
would have required 40,000. The siege, therefore,
was a very imaginary one, and from the same troops
having to be moved by long distances to the dif-
ferent points of attack there were terribly long i 5;
tervals between the acts. The theory of the attack
and defence was supposed to he as follows :—Tucic
whole of the south-west face of Chatham lines hdt.
been regularly invested from St. Mary's Cite%
New Brompton. For all the first and greater Part
of the second parallels, however, there was
sufficient ground, so these were taken for grantea;
but the third and fourth parallels were complete in
their minutest detail, except that, for the sal
want of space, the fourth had to be thrown up neared
to the besieged works than could ever have haPPen,e,,
in actual warfare. These works were beautifully
finished, in some parts the earth being as much 55
25 feet thick, the minimum now considered neees
sary to resist heavy rifled guns from fortificationS'
Every device known to modern siege operatioes°o
carried out, and one, a new one, but likely to co3l.it
into use extensively—a screen battery—was hul 0
to perfection. The besiegers were supposed to 13
about to make an attack on four points siniulr;
neously, but, as the troops were not enough A°t
such manceuvr,..s, two attacks were made; the firs
of which was repulsed, and then, after a very
pause, two others, which were successful. ef°,l:,
the attack commenced Lord Napier of A/N;(I37Z
with General Murray, who was in command, r°
round the lines of the besiegers and inspected
them from first to last. Soon after two o'eleejc'
the mimic siege began with a slight attack on tbu°
extreme left of the position of St. Mary's floroW°r
and from St. Mary's Creek. This,
however, vQ
,50
a very slight affair, and only interesting fromte,,
fact of the garrison springing some torpecl°'s
under water when they saw the boats eonlit
These, of course, were sprung long before the heato
were in danger, but their effect was quite enough
show what a terrible engine of river and naval W,5-:
fare may be made of these hidden machines. -"e;
terday, though their charges were small, their shec.a
was very heavy, and they sent the sea flying up
gigantic columns high into the air. They w°° Id
have broken the back of any vessel of war that ha
been close over them at the time of their explosiecis;
This, however, was but a picturesque ePis:°st
of the attack—the real business was done Waldo
Prince Henry's Bastion, to take which by ese`ahseic
was next attempted. The besiegers sprung t",-"be
mine, and a great mine it was, too,
earth like water, as its great mass of Marne 55130
heaving uP " a
smoke rushed out into the air. Under cover e'io
great fire and the confusion supposed to the
created by the explosion of the mine, ri's,
storming party divided into three divisle-s.
and, headed by Sappers and the ladder Part„.ie,,,,:
rushed across the open. In a few minutes tw-t‘o
were across and had their ladders down i5O
the ditch, and the whole 32 carried across ag.lales
and laid against the Bastion at the other s'
and the men instantly began to swarm tIP tbreto,
under a covering fire from their own suPP°,eo
The garrison, however, were not to be taPio
by surprise ; they swarmed to the defence kilo
numbers, and one would have thought front kilo
incessant roar that some 10,000 men had beep
engaged, so continuous was the crack of
0.10
Snider rifle. It seems almost incredible that a silo
weapon can be made to fire so fast. Coolol3.vg
firing with it yesterday seemed to be deliverl,llo
long, irregular, but always sustained volleys.
toed
assailants got a footing in the Bastion, but
triumph was to be only short lived. The bealegtha
were too strong for them, and after one u'beeo
most animated mimic contests that have
.yea
seen at Chatham, the assailants were fairly drlad,
out and forced down their ladders pell-mall, °Ol.O
in spite of the covering fire from their rnerl, to
and shells, were chased across the open haetbd
their trenches. Had it been real warfare,
would have been almost annihilated—eertsillev
would have got such a lesson as would have ie., for
tually prevented any resumption of the assault op.
that day at least. The enemy, however, were 5 the
posed to be all powerful and determined to take
Ore,
place at any cost. After a short respite, theref°l.o:
two other attacks were made on the enfeebleclbgere.
t
rison, but this time both were together, and at
fore successful. The rear of the besiegers 'served
St. Mary's Sallyport was only defended by 3
Cree
powerful stockade opening on St. Mary's of
while the Redan battery on the east centre of
supposed to have been destroyed by the 11r6
000
the fourth parallel, and to have had a le`i, g of a
effected in it. The stockade was taken first' ships'
continuous fire from the gunboats and
II if,
launches, its defenders were driven ire; cosi-
and, under cover of this attack, a party o'cbargo
'leers advanced towardsit and affixed a heavY.a,Uy
of powder, which was fired on their retirlrfeater
means of a long fuse, and in an instant the bi'ioters
part of the massive stockade was laid in isPor the
far and near. The explosion was the signal
stair
advance on the Sallyport, and also for they
ing of the Redan, both of which were nu.' a feet
menced in earnest. The S dlyport
to OP,. b
minutes, for there were no guns i„
kbe
assailants, and only a handful of men. ,it wade
Redan, however, it was very different, and
_as tou
a fierce fight, but the fire of the assailants r op-
• bled their Jo
heavy. Tacit- covering p trties enabled
a I.°lle
pers to get to work, and in a few minutes
s the ' to
was lo.t loose
tbo
strong " trestle" bridge was thrown across bad 0
and then it was all over. The defendersitin3os.
beat a hasty retreat, and the two
attack, uniting, drove the whole
terrific uproar of musketry, from powt tv
d _a t
bp
till there was nothing left to defers
ding to
very naturally brought the whole procec
close.