trooi^s, to the number, it is stated, of 15,000, attacked en masse and with fearful yells the head of the sap which the French were carrying on towards the Mamelon, and then bore to the left of their new parallel of which we have already spoken above, into which they succeeded in penetrating, and of which, spite of the gallant resistance opposed to them, they obtained temporary possession. Having broken through, they then threw themselves upon the right of the English parallel, succeeded in crossing the works, and took up a position in the rear of the French left, which for a moment was exposed to a murderous cross fire. General d'Autemarre, the French General on duty in the trenches, distinguished himself in this emergency by his coolness and presence of mind, and a battalion of the Chasseurs-a-pied, coming up in support, charged the enemy in the ravine and drove him back from this point with considerable loss. Meanwhile the body of Russians which had reached our parallel were met by the guard of the trenches, consisting of detachments of the 77th and 97th regiments, who, although thus taken suddenly both in flank and rear, exhibited the utmost coolness and resolution. Captain Vicars, who commanded the detachment of the 97th, was the first to come in contact with the enemy. Making his men lie down, he waited till the Russians were within twenty paces, when, springing to their feet, the redcoats, after pouring in one murderous volley, closed, and with the unfailing bayonet quickly drove the Russians out of the trench. Vicars himself fell, as he was encouraging his men by his voice and by his example. He had struck down two Russians, and was in the act of cutting down a third, when a ball, fired by a man so close to him that his coat was singed by the fire, entered his uplifted arm near its junction with the shoulder, and stretched him lifeless on the earth. " Nothing," says an artillery officer, in narrating the fate of this heroic soldier, " could have been more noble, devoted, and glorious than his conduct in this, his first and last engagement." A testimony, it may be added, which was amply confirmed by Lord Raglan. The detachment of the 77th rivalled the courage of their comrades of the Light Division. Major Gordon, of the Engineers, who was in command of the whole party, and was conspicuous no less for his skilful arrangements than for his personal valour, was wounded in two places on this occasion, in which officers and men vied with each other in bravery and devotedness.
The attention of the troops in our advanced works having been by these transactions drawn to the right, the enemy took occasion to move upon, and succeeded in penetrating into, the left front of our right attack, near a battery where two 10-inch mortars had been recently placed. They were led by an Albanian, whose picturesque national costume, studded with richly inlaid pistols and costly daggers, rendered him especially conspicuous, and who was easily recognised as having on more than one previous occasion led, with the greatest daring, sorties from the garrison. Leaping on to the parapet of the mortar battery, he discharged one of his pistols into the breast of Captain the Hon. Cavendish Browne, of the 7th Fusiliers, who instantly fell, mortally wounded. He was the next instant shot himself, and is stated to have fired, as he lay on the ground, another pistol into the magazine of the battery, but fortunately without effect. Foiled in his deadly purpose, he was forthwith deprived of the power to meditate further mischief, by being bayoneted to death. The 7th and 34th regiments, who had been at work in the neighbourhood, and had been brought up by Lieutenant-Colonel Tylden of the Eoyal Enginers, charged the Russians with the bayonet, almost without having fired a shot, and speedily ejected them from the battery and from this part of the parallel. A separate attack was at the same time made on the English advanced batteries on the extreme left, which were still unarmed, and which for a moment were in the hands of the Russians: who, however, here also were speedily driven out by the working parties, whom Captain Chapman, Royal Engineers, having collected and reformed, led with the utmost gallantry against them.