Nothing, however, had broken the repose of the British camp, or hinted
at the near approach of countless foes.

The night had been tranquil; the enemy quiet; only, in the valley
beneath our pickets on the Inkerman heights, some sentries had heard
the constant rumbling of wheels, but their officers to whom they
reported did not interpret the same aright, as the movement of
artillery.

An hour or more before daylight the church-bells of Sebastopol rang
out a joyous peal. Why not? It was the Sabbath morning. But these
chimes, alas! ushered in a Sunday of struggle and bloodshed, not of
peaceful devotion and prayer.

The outlying pickets had been relieved, and were marching campwards;
the Second Division had had its customary "daylight parade"; the men
had stood to their arms for half-an-hour, and, as nothing was
stirring, had been dismissed to their tents; the fatigue-parties had
been despatched for rations, water, fuel--in a word, the ordinary
daily duties of the camp had commenced, when the sharp rattle of
musketry rang out angrily, and well sustained in the direction of our
foremost picket on Shell Hill.

"That means mischief!" The speaker was General Codrington, who,
according to invariable rule, had ridden out before daylight to
reconnoitre and watch the enemy. "Halt the off-going pickets; we may
want all the men we can lay hands on."

Then this prompt and judicious commander proceeded to line the
Victoria ridge, which faced Mount Inkerman, with the troops he had
thus impounded, and galloped off to put the rest of his brigade under
arms.

The firing reached and roused another energetic general officer,
Pennefather, who now commanded the Second Division in place of De Lacy
Evans.

"Sound the assembly!" he cried. "Let the division stand to its arms.
Every man must turn out: every mother's son of them. We shall be
engaged hot and strong in less than half-an-hour."

As pugnacious as any terrier, Pennefather, with unerring instinct,
smelt the coming fight.

His division was quickly formed on what was afterwards called the
"Home Ridge," and which was its regular parade-ground. But the general
had no idea of awaiting attack in this position. It was his plan
rather to push forward and fight the enemy wherever he could be found.
With this idea he sent a portion of his strength down the slope to
"feed the pickets," as he himself called it, whilst another was
advanced to the right front under General Wilders, and wi