e his way to
the lines of the 33d. Here he found that Harry had been sent home sick
in January, but that he had sailed from England again with a draft,
and was expected to arrive in the course of a few days. Jack found but
few of the officers still there whom he had before known. Several,
however, were expected shortly back either from England or from the
hospitals at Scutari.

Greatly relieved to find that his brother was alive and well, Jack
returned to the naval camp, where he speedily made himself at home.
When he first mentioned to his messmates, two lads about his own age,
that he had been a prisoner in Russia, the statement was received with
incredulity, and when, at their request, he proceeded to tell some of
his adventures, they regarded him with admiration as the most
stupendous liar they had ever met. It was long indeed before his
statements were in any way believed, and it was only when, upon the
occasion of one day dining with the officer in command of the brigade,
Jack, at his request, related in the presence of several officers his
adventures in Russia, that his statements were really accepted as
facts; for it was agreed that whatever yarns a fellow might invent to
astonish his comrades, he would not venture upon relating them as
facts to a post-captain. This, however, was later on.

On the morning after his arrival all was expectation, for it was known
that the bombardment was about to recommence. At half-past two o'clock
the roar of 157 guns and mortars in the British batteries, and over
800 in those of the French, broke the silence, answered a minute or
two later by that of the Russian guns along their whole line of
batteries. The day was hot and almost without a breeze, and the smoke
from so vast a number of guns hung heavily on the hill-side, and
nothing could be seen as to the effect which the cannonade was
producing. It was not until next morning that the effect of the fire
was visible. The faces of the Russian batteries were pitted and
scarred, but no injury of importance had been inflicted upon them. All
day the fire continued with unabated fury on the side of the allies,
the Russians replying intermittently. Presently the news circulated
through the camp that an assault would be made at six o'clock, and all
officers and men of duty thronged the brow of the plateau, looking
down upon the town.

At half-past six a body of French troops were observed to leave their
trenches, and, in skirmishing