The true Democrat., 1855-05-08

ven out of the parallel, the enemy stood still and fired continued heavy fle-fre into the work, which, 1 regret to say, caused some se- were losses among our gallant officers. Captain the Hon. Cavendish Browne, of the Eth, while cheering and animatng the men, received no less than seven musket balls through the chest. and expired instantly. Under cover of this | file-fre the Russians strove to carry off their wounded, but the incessant volleys of musket- ry which were poured into them from our lines eventually compelled them to fall back. though they still continued to fire heavy musketry from time to time.
 While this was going on, on the left and cen- ter, the French on the right were engaged in a most serious contest. It seems that our allies were completely taken by surprise by the ene- my's sortie, so much so that before they could offer any effectual resistance, or move up their reserve, the Russians had gathered complete possession of their portion of the work, and opened such deadly fire upon the French that they were compelled to give ground before it. The French soon received re-enforcements, but by that time the enemy had considerably ad- vanced. and were destroying the trench. The French, nevertheless, instantly charged them and succeeded in driving them back for some distance, though not out of the work Both
 
 commenced terrific file fire into each others ranks, which caused serious loss both to the ene- my and our allies. After few minutes of this the French again charged, and soon, by a series of desperate struggles, succeeded in the course of half an hour, in completely eiecting the Rms. sans from the trench, though not. I regret to say, until the work was very considerably ip- jured, and our allies had sustained very heavy loss on both men and officers. But that the two columns which attacked the English line were signally defeated, the hold which the ene- my for time obtained in the French advanced work might have proved most serious affair.
 The loss on the English side in men was low beyond all precedent but among officers, re- gretto say, the casualties have been most severe.
 About twenty prisoners were captured by our men. One, a Russian officer, whom Capt. Rich man engaged and cut his ear off, and succeed ed in capturing him. The Russian officer who displayed such courage in leading his men was bayoneted, with the five soldiers, who, with him, succeeded in getting into the trench He was armed with yataghan and double edged dagger. The former was taken by an officer of the 0Sth. It Is a beautiful weapon, handsome ly mounted, and the blade inlaid with gold Da- mascene work. Both sword and dagger were as keen as razors, and bore distinct marks of having just been sharpened and fine edge put to them.
 The loss of the French, am sorry to add, has been unusually heavy. The very careful manner in which they always conceal their number of casualties, in affairs like last night, makes it difficult to arrive at the truth; but I am informed that they lost no less than 15 off cers and upward of 500 men killed and wound ed. Of these, six officers and 15Omen are said to be killed.
 The loss of the enemy has been most severe. To-day 1 visited our works which are only dis tant about two hundred and fifty yards from the scene of the contest, and; from a hill near Gordon's battery, a long line of Russian dead were visible outside our parpllel. I should say that not less than two hundred corpses lie be- yond our line at this point. In front of the French they were thicker, some three hundred being in front of their works. Nearly one hun dred of the enemy's dead lie inside the French parallel as they fell. Only five are in ours one officer and four men.