“I am sure of it, general. All the animal food we get in the camp is too fresh: the beast is no sooner slaughtered than it is either in the pot, oven, or on the gridiron.”
“We shall be about twenty.”
“So I perceive, and that my name figures amongst your illustrious guests. You must, however, general, leave me entirely free on that occasion; I will sit down to table when I think proper.”
“Do as you like, but you must sit down with us.”
“On that day, general, I claim precedence, and even command, over the head of your division.”
He laughed heartily, saying, “It shall be so. To-morrow there is to be a review of two divisions in honour of General Vassileffsky, and no doubt the lunch will come off the day after.”
“Very well, general; only give me due notice, I will answer for the rest. After such success at head-quarters, the Fourth Division must not fail.”
As there was nothing more to be done, I gave my people a holiday to see the ruins of Sebastopol, which they had not been able to do owing to the press of business. I thought I might as well go myself, as my engineer, Mr. Phillips, had not seen them. The horses were ordered—Mesnil and Phillips accompanied me. We mounted and galloped towards the dilapidated city, which, although from the hill it seems close at hand, afterwards appears to recede further and further. We arrived at the Ravin des Boulets—so called from the extraordinary crop of that article which lay there after the ploughing of that piece of land by the hand of Mars, the god of iron vegetables made of solid materials. Our gallant cockney Zouave, who had never smelt any other powder than gunpowder tea, was quite intrepid, and he mounted to the Redan as though he intended to take it by assault. He was always ahead; and no sooner had a view from that far-famed historical spot, of which he had so successfully taken possession, than the rage of valour seized upon him; no one could arrest his progress—he bounded off upon his steed several hundred yards in advance, shouting in frantic enthusiasm, “To Sebastopol! to Sebastopol!” My friend and myself were rather cooler upon the subject, and trotted slowly along the ravine direct to the Mast Battery. I called my invincible engineer back, telling him that he was going the wrong way, as we wanted to visit that battery before going into the city. He therefore returned.
“I tell you what,” said I, “young boiling-hot warrior from Snow-hill, if you had been here this time last year, you would not have charged like that; the Russians would have smashed your crown for you.”
No doubt they would, had I given them a chance; but I should have said with the coward, Peter Morrison, ‘The time to show courage has arrived, my brave fellow; let us hide ourselves.’ He had scarcely perpetrated this old joke, when a tremendous explosion was heard, shaking the earth under our horses’ feet and almost upsetting them. I made sure it was a mine that had been sprung; and a few seconds after, a thick short piece of wood, partially ignited, fell at about ten paces from my horse’s head. The animal began to kick, and we were enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke smelling of powder, and so thick that for a few seconds we positively could not see anything. I expected that my two friends had been blown into the air, and they thought that I had met with the same fate. We soon perceived there was no harm done. Our horses advanced a few paces; and upon turning the corner of the ravine, about ten yards in advance, we perceived three sailors lying dead, as we thought, and the ground about them covered with blood. Two of them were screaming; the other had one leg blown to atoms, and was badly wounded in the other. We lifted the man who was lying on his face, thinking that he was the worst of all, when to our surprise we found that he had not been touched, excepting by a few fragments of his friend’s limbs, which had fallen upon his back. His companion was slightly wounded in four places: it was a most extraordinary circumstance that his trousers were torn to ribbons, and a piece of the bridge of his nose was taken clean off, from which wound he bled copiously. We perceived that it was not a mine, but a thirteen-inch shell, which had exploded, though not a vestige of it remained near the spot; nothing but a train of burnt powder about five feet long and three inches wide could be seen near the poor fellows who had so imprudently risked their lives. We did all we could to alleviate their sufferings. It was extremely awkward to meddle with the first, who remained perfectly motionless, and no hospital was near nor doctor to be obtained. I gave a French soldier five shillings to run to the French camp and fetch a doctor: he did not succeed, but returned with a stretcher. I also sent to Sebastopol, but without success. I had just tied the poor fellow’s leg very tight above the knee, in order to stop the loss of blood, when General Dacres and a number of officers who had heard the report came to the spot. I told the general how the accident had occurred, as it had been explained to me by the man who set it going, as he called it. Although he was nearest to the deadly missile when it exploded, he was not even scratched.