completely battered in, and the fire of these works almost silenced. It had been arranged, on opening fire, that on the second day a combined assault should be made, an intention thus characteristically announced by General Pelissier, in a telegraphic despatch to his government: "To-day (June 6), with our Allies, we opened fire against the outer works, and to-morrow, so please God, we will take them." The outer works thus alluded to were, in the first place, the Volhynian and Selenghinsk redoubts, constructed by the Eussians and unsuccessfully attacked by the French in February, and which were called by the latter the " Outrages Blancs ",- then the Mamelon, and still more to the left the Quarries. The two former of these works fell to the share of the French, while the last was to be attacked by the English. " Each of these attacks," says an historian of the war, " is separated from the other by a steep and rocky ravine; that of the Ouvracjes Blancs is separated from the Malakoff attack by the ravine of Careening Bay, and the Malakoff attack is separated from the English attack by the ravine of the Karabelnaya. These ravines inconveniently isolated the attacks, but their covered spots enabled the Allies to place numerous and powerful reserves sheltered from the enemy's fire." The evening was the time chosen for the assault, as there would still be sufficient light for the troops to see what they were attacking, while the closing-in of night would in a great measure obviate their exposure to the enemy's fire while establishing themselves in the captured works.
General Pelissier, whose despatches are no less remarkable for the lucidity of their style, than for their accuracy and fullness of detail, thus narrates the part borne by the French:
" At half-past six Lord Raglan was at the English observatory. I myself proceeded to the trench in front of the Victoria Redoubt, whence, as agreed upon with his Lordship, I sent up rockets as the signal for the attack. General Bosquet, who was at the battery next to the Lancaster Battery, had just received his last reports. Everything was ready, the troops were burning with ardour, and perfectly confident of success. As the first rocket went up, the Lavaraude Brigade, headed by its general, rushed forth from the second parallel of Careening Bay, and, at a running charge, carried the works of the 27th of February. Despite the fire of grape and musketry it had to face during the 200 yards it had to cross, and which caused considerable loss, the column penetrated into the battery by the embrasures and breaches. A hand-to-hand struggle ensued on every point; a number of the defenders were killed on the spot, and we were soon masters of the intrenchment. At the same signal and with the same impetuosity, De Failly's Brigade rushed upon the work of the 22nd of February. The distance is double, the ground to cross more difficult, with a murderous flank fire from the other work. Nothing stops this gallant brigade. It arrives in a dense body at the battery, scales the parapet under a rolling fire, and, jumping into the work, overcomes the desperate resistance of the enemy. Driven back on these two points, and hotly pi'essed by our men, the Eussians fly in disorder, some towards a little battery constructed since the 2nd of May to defend the enti-ance to the Careening Bay ravine, some towards the bridge crossing the bay by which the ravine debouches into the great port of Sebastopol. Some of our men, carried away by the pursuit of the enemy, seize upon the battery of the 2nd of May and spike the guns. As this battery, however, is 500 metres beyond the work of the 22nd of February, the most distant from our lines, and placed under the double protection of the works of the enceinte and of the forts to the north of the roadstead, it is impossible to think of occupying it as yet. General Mayran, perceiving a Eussian column advancing to retake the battery of the 2nd of May, ordered his men to charge with fixed bayonets, drove back the column into the town, and took sixty prisoners, including three officers. He rallied the advanced troops and led them back to the works of the 22nd and 27th of February (the Selenghinsk and Volhynian redoubts), which remain definitely in our hands. Meantime the two battalions concentrated in the ravine of Careening Bay, under the orders of Lieutenant-Colonel Larrouy d'Orion, were anything but idle. Descending the ravine at the moment the attack was taking place on the ridge, they pushed on as far as the aqueduct bridge, climbed up the right bank, and cut off the retreat of the enemy driven fi'om the first two works. This movement, executed with as much vigour as skill, and which procured us four hundred prisoners, including twelve officers, does the highest credit to Lieutenant-Colonel Larrouy d'Orion.