in the demolition. The Russians had ruined this fort, but
had not had time to put in the powder; the excavations were
complete. It certainly is a splendid fort, mounting 128 guns, and
capitally finished for barracks. It would hold 6000 men. The
Russians evidently intended this to be an exceptionally strong
place, and they appear to have been making a quay all the way
round the dockyard creek. We have seen a great deal of the French
engineers; they are older men than ours, and seem well educated.
The non-commissioned officers are much more intelligent than our
men. With us, although our men are not stupid, the officers have
to do a good deal of work which the French sapper
non-commissioned officer does. They all understand line of least
resistance, etc., and what they are about. The Russians do not
molest us much now. We can hear them call out and sing,
especially on Sundays. We can see them drill, which they do every
day. They even have the coolness to go out and fish in the
harbour. We never fire, neither do the French. I do not think
they purpose leaving the north side; in fact, it would not be at
all wise of them to do so. We had some French engineers to dine
with us the other day; they were very agreeable, and we learnt a
great deal from them about their mining. They used to hear the
Russians mining within ten feet of them, and when they did this
they used to put in their powder as quick as possible and blow in
the Russian mines. The Russians had two systems or layers of
mines, one about ten feet below the surface of the ground and the
other about forty feet. The French only knew of the higher one,
and they found out after the place was taken that their advanced
trenches were quite mined and loaded in the lower tier. In the
Bastion du Mat there were no less than thirty-six mines loaded
and tamped. I saw one myself in the upper tier when I was
surveying it. They (the Russians) worked out a strata of clay
between two layers of rock, so that no wood was required to keep
the earth from falling in."

Soon after these letters a truce was concluded with the Russians in
anticipation of the peace which was ultimately signed at Paris in
March 1856. The prospects of peace were not altogether agreeable to
the English army, which had been raised to an effective strength o