On the 17th of October, on which day the Allies, having sufficiently completed their preparations, opened fire, the Eussians had also finished a continuous and most powerful line of defences, which, avoiding technicalities as much as possible, may be thus briefly enumerated: To the south-west of Careening Bay, and at the extreme left of their line, the Malakoff or Bound Tower before mentioned, and whose name has since become so familiar to every one acquainted with the history of the siege, had been surrounded with powerful earthworks, which, equally with the tower itself, weie mounted with guns of heavy calibre. Next to this work, and on its proper right, was another, technically known as the Redan, of vast strength, and similarly armed. Next to this, again, in the same direction, and still on the eastern side of Dockyard Creek, the Barrack Battery, and on the other side the Flagstaff Battery, or Bastion du Mat, the loop-holed wall, and a line
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of works terminated by the Quarantine Battery, which formed the extreme right of the Kussian line of defence.
In the meanwhile the Allies had not been idle. On the 9th of October the French succeeded, without interruption from the enemy, in completing about 900 metres of a regular trench, and on the night of the 10th, the British also broke ground with similar success, but not with the same immunity from molestation, as the Eussians, who were on the alert, never ceased firing on our lines during the whole night. Their fire, however, was not very effective, and before daybreak about 1,200 yards of trench had been completed in the teeth of this opposition, and in spite of the rocky and difficult nature of the ground on which our men had to work. From this time the siege-works progressed with unexampled rapidity on both sides, and on the 17th the Russians found themselves opposed by a series of wellconstructed and heavily-armed batteries, which promised, even to the least sanguine among the assailants, results which the event failed to justify. The enemy was apparently aware of the moment of the long-threatened attack, and, for half an hour before the signal preconcerted by the Allies was given, a heavy fire was opened upon them all along the line. This was replied to by the English and French batteries at half-past six, and a vigorous cannonade was maintained for some time on both sides, without any decided superiority being manifested on either. At the end of an hour and a half, however, the first indications of the balance inclining in favour of the Eussians began to be exhibited; some of the French works, owing to an engineering oversight, were found to be enfiladed by the enemy's guns, and this circumstance, added to the heavy weight of metal by which they were assailed, gradually overpowered the fire of our Allies, which began sensibly to slacken.
Shortly before nine o'clock the French magazine on the extreme right of their attack mifortunately exploded, causing a very severe loss, and the Eussians followed up their advantage with such vigour, that ere long they had all but completely silenced the French batteries.
Towards the middle of the day the three Allied Fleets, at the urgent instance of the Generals, who had calculated much on the effects of this diversion, ran in and engaged the sea-ward forts with the greatest energy.
The firing on shore was now also excessively hot on all sides, and at this period of the day the scene was one to which no powers of description could do adequate justice. Thick wreaths of smoke enveloped the town, the harbour, and the ships, and this fearful fire-mist was illumined and reddened by incessant flashes, while the ear was deafened by the multitudinous roar of nearly a thousand pieces of the heaviest ordnance, accompanied by that indescribable but appalling hurtling of the air produced by the screaming of shell and the hoarse whistle of round shot as they tly on their errand of death and destruction. Later in the day another French magazine burst, and subsequently two or three Russian ones, the most fearful explosion of the day being one which occurred in the Redan. Eye-witnesses declare that for some seconds after it occurred the air was black with showers of loose earth, stones, and debris of every description, amongst which the keener eyes or more vivid imaginations of some who have described the scene, descried legs and arms, and other fragmentary remains of what shortly previous had been living and breathing men. The Redan, however, was not silenced, the Russians returning with indomitable resolution to their guns.