r? we have many more to come. The Imperial Guard
has landed, and the reserve, are at Constantinople."

"Yes, and there are the 'Sardines,'" said another pointing to the new
uniform.

"Plenty of new arrivals. M. Soyer, the great cook, landed yesterday."

"What on earth brings him?"

"He is going to teach the troops to make omelettes and biscuit-soup."

"We were ahead of him in that, I think," said Hyde, winking at
Anatole.

"He is with Miss Nightingale, you know, who has come out as head
nurse."

"Heaven bless her!"

"Well, for all the new arrivals, we don't get on very fast with the
siege."

"Why don't they go into the place, without all this shilly-shallying?"
cried an impetuous Briton. "We'd take the place--we, the rank and
file--if the generals only would let us do the work alone."

"They are a poor lot, the generals, I say."

"Halt, there! not a word against Lord Raglan," cried Hyde.

"He is so slow."

"Yes, but he is uncommon sure. Have you ever seen him in action? I
have. He knows how to command: so quiet and self-possessed. Such a
different man from the French generals, who always shout and swear and
make such a confounded row. What do you think of your generals,
Anatole?"

"Canrobert is an imbecile; he never knows his own mind."

"Well, we shan't be troubled with him much longer," said a fresh
arrival. "Canrobert has just resigned the chief command."

"Impossible!" said Anatole, when the news was interpreted to him.

"It is perfectly true, I assure you," replied the last speaker. "I
have just come from the English headquarters, and saw the new French
commander-in-chief there. Palliser, I think they call him."

"Pelissier," said the French sergeant, correcting him. "That is good
news. A rare old dog of war that. We shan't wait long to attack if he
has the ordering."

"They say the Russian generals have changed lately. Gortschakoff has
succeeded Mentschikoff."

"Confound those koffs! They are worse than a cold in the head."

"And just as difficult to get rid of. I'd like to wring their necks,
and every Russian's at Sebastopol."

"Mentschikoff could not have been a bad fellow, anyway."

"How do you know that?"

"Why, one of our officers who was taken prisoner at Inkerman has just
come back to camp. I heard him say that while he was in Sebastopol he
got a letter from his young woman at home. She said she hoped he would
take Mentschikoff prisoner, and send her home a button off his coa