Her Majesty's steam frigates, Betrihution, Niger, and Vesuvi^is, the transport ship Melbourne, the Progress, and other vessels which with varying fortunes shared the perils of this awful day, are dimly and with difficulty discerned looming through mist and darkness. In the centre, the Avon is seen steaming into the hardly-won entrance of the port, and the background is formed by the outline of the rugged and abrupt cliffs which continue the coast line into the farthest distance, till their sombre forms blend at last with the angry billows, or the wild and dreary sky above them.
PLATE V.
SEBASTOPOL FEOM THE REAR OF THE ENGLISH BATTERIES.
This drawing, like all those which' depict Sebastopol as it was, derives a new and deeper interest from the glorious success which has so recently crowned the patient perseverance and the long-protracted efforts of the Allied Armies. Since the period when the view was taken, sad havoc has been made by war's unmannerly hand among the proud palaces and the stately edifices of the " white-walled city by the sea,"; and, though the attempt of its late masters to complete the ruin and desolation of a place they were compelled to abandon to their foes may have partially failed, few can doubt that for long, if not for ever, its ancient "glory has departed."
The offensive works of the English on both attacks which form the principal subjects of the picture before us, have been constantly in course of modification and change by the progress of the siege, and its termination will probably restore to the ploughshare and the harrow the ground so long usurped by trenches and batteries. But the latest posterity of Englishmen will continue to seek with avidity and to study with attention all that tends to elucidate the history of one of the most remarkable and important military operations on record. They will trace with eager curiosity and with an honest pride the slow but certain process by which, in spite of the severest privations, and of the most determined resistance, their heroic forefathers drove an obstinate foe into his furthest entrenchments, and within one short year of their landing in his territory, finally expelled him from a stronghold he had fondly deemed impregnable. The works on both sides are here shown as they existed at the end of last year, and the close proximity of the French advanced batteries on the extreme left of the picture to the Kussian defences opposed to them, indicates forcibly how much had even then been accomplished. Next to these on the right, and skirting the ridge of the ravine which separated the English and the French, are the batteries of the English "left attack," generally known as the "Threegun " and " Green-hill " batteries. Beneath these, and still further to the right, lies in fancied security the beleaguered city, in which, as yet, scarcely a trace of injury is visible, protected towards the centre of the picture by the terrible Kedan, around, beneath, and within which the most precious blood of England has twice been poured forth like water. Across the calm, unruffled surface of the great harbour, in whose waters the Russian fleet for a while contrived to l^ostpone the just and inevitable chastisement of the Sinope massacre, the eye falls on Fort Constantino, and the other sea and harbour defences of the North side. On the right the works of the partially dismantled Malakoff Tower and the Gordon Battery of our right attack are interchanging messages, not such as
"Fly on wings of swift-heeled Mercuries,"
but which are couched in tones of thunder, and borne on the pinions of a sterner Bellona than the wildest myth could even faintly shadow forth.
Far away a cloud of smoke points out the position of the Diamond Battery, commanded by the dauntless Captain Peel, and manned by his gallant and ever cheery tars, whose ceaseless energy and reckless daring contributed so largely to the final success, and vindicated for the fleet their share in a triumph from which a recreant foe would fain have excluded them.
In the distance the Armadas of France and England, drawn up in proud array, observe the offing; and, like grim dogs of war, keep watch and ward, lest the destined prey escape from the dread embrace which is every day tightening around it, never again to be relaxed until its annihilation is accomplished.
PLATE VI.
CHAEGE OF THE HEAVY CAVALRY BRIGADE..
25th October, 1854.
In the background of this picture the eye, already familiar with the scene, recognises the crowded harbour of Balaklava, and the GenoesQ forts surmounting the heights which shut it in on the east; on the left the ground rises o z o o
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