rection of the Turkish
shore. Another and another succeeded, and after each shot a smaller
puff of smoke was seen to hang over the Turkish batteries opposite.

A strange conflicting rush of feelings came over me, for I had awakened
from dreaming of ancient battles to find myself in the actual presence
of modern war. The Russian had opened fire, and their shells were
bursting among the Turks. These latter were not slow to reply. Soon
the rumbling increased to thunder, and I was startled by hearing a
tremendous crash not far distant from me, followed by a strange humming
sound. The crash was the bursting of a Turkish shell in one of the
streets of the town, and the humming sound was the flying about of
ragged bits of iron. From the spot on which I stood I could see the
havoc it made in the road, while men, women, and children were rushing
in all directions out of its way.

Two objects lay near the spot, however, which moved, although they did
not flee. One was a woman, the other a boy; both were severely wounded.

I hurried through the town in the direction of the Red-Cross hospital,
partly expecting that I might be of service there, and partly in the
hope of finding Nicholas. As I went I heard people remarking excitedly
on the fact that the Turks were firing at the hospital.

The bombardment became furious, and I felt an uncomfortable disposition
to shrink as I heard and saw shot and shell falling everywhere in the
streets, piercing the houses, and bursting in them. Many of these were
speedily reduced to ruins.

People hurried from their dwellings into the streets, excited and
shouting. Men rushed wildly to places of shelter from the deadly
missiles, and soon the cries and wailing of women over the dead and
wounded increased the uproar. This was strangely and horribly
contrasted with the fiendish laughter of a group of boys, who, as yet
unhurt, and scarcely alive to the real nature of what was going on, had
taken shelter in an archway, from which they darted out occasionally to
pick up the pieces of shells that burst near them.

These poor boys, however, were not good judges of shelter-places in such
circumstances. Just as I passed, a shell fell and burst in front of the
archway, and a piece of it went singing so close past my head that I
fancied at the first moment it must have hit me. At the same instant
the boys uttered an unearthly yell of terror and fled from under the
archway, where I saw one of