flank of the position, in the second line; before us were the reserves of the 13th DivisionGeneral Oslonovich; in short, the army was in the second fighting order, in the form of a chessboard, according to the Russian tactics, in two lines with reserves in the third. While here I walked over the ground, and carefully examined the position occupied by our army. The village of Bourliouk was sacked, and our men used to go there and bring away pillows, feather-beds, household utensils of various kinds, boards, doors, &c. It was grievous to look at this village, as it had been deserted by its inhabitants, who left everything in their houses. this time I had seen little of war. structed for ourselves huts of the branches of trees, and luxuriated in fruit, of which we found great quantities in the gardens, especially grapes.

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On the morning of the 19th we were ordered to move across the river in half strength, i.e. all the odd men in the battalion as they stood in the ranks were to go, while even numbers were to remain and form another battalion; thus we had two battalions instead of one, or a brigade that looked like a division. This was a plan of General Kiriakoff for the purpose of increasing his strength, approved of by Prince Menschikoff,

who remarked that if the men stood in the ranks at double the ordinary distance from each other they would appear still more numerous! We now learnt that our General had offered to make a reconnaissance on the enemy with his brigade (the 2nd brigade of the 17th Division), with No. 4 light field battery, the 2nd brigade (Hussars) of the 6th Division of cavalry, nine sotnias of Don Cossacks, and one Cossack battery. We advanced about two versts, when we formed into fighting order, the regiment of Borodino on the right in columns of battalions in two lines, the regiment Taroutine on the left in the same order as that of Borodino, with the battery No. 4 in the centre, while the Hussars covered the right flank, and the Cossacks our left flank. In this order we moved slowly towards the heights above the river Boulganak, below which we halted in a position entirely hidden from the enemy; so much so that we could not see the skirmish between the cavalry of the two armies that took place on the other side of the hills.

As our cavalry was returning, General Kiriakoff ordered the battery to open fire as soon as the enemy's cavalry showed itself above the hills. During the preceding night General Chaletzky had gone out on a reconnoitring ex

pedition with two squadrons of Hussars in white jackets, of which the commander of the battery knew nothing, as all our cavalry wore the grey great-coat. By some accident these two whitejacketed squadrons showed themselves last over the hill at some distance from the others. Lieutenant-Colonel Kondratieff, taking them for the enemy, opened fire on them, and sent them one round shot from each of his eight guns. Lieutenant-Colonel Kondratieff cannot be blamed for this, as he only obeyed the orders of his General, who probably had forgotten all about the reconnaissance of General Chaletzky, or he ought to have warned the commander of the battery not to fire into his own men. General Chaletzky, a Polish Tatar by birth, galloped round the regiment of Borodino with his sword drawn, and at full speed made towards Lieutenant-Colonel Kondratieff. We fully expected to see a tragic end to this affair, when General Kiriakoff galloped up from the other side, and arrived just in time to prevent mischief; he endeavoured to pacify the Hussar, at least he saved the life of the commander of the battery. This was another of the freaks of the commander of our division, from which there were seven men killed and wounded. With the Hussars there was a French Colonel, a prisoner,

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who had mistaken them for the cavalry of the allied army, and only discovered his mistake when too late. I think I saw him driven off the field in a carriage after the battle of Alma.

Unfortunately for Russia there are too many men elevated to posts of power and influence that are utterly incapable of governing the machines intrusted to them; for a Russian soldier forms part of a machine, which is composed of enormous masses of men that never have thought and never will think. They are oppressed with blows and illtreatment; their understanding is kept down by their servitude and the severe laws to which they are subjected. Sometimes a man more sprightly than his comrades will try to solve some knotty point, but he soon loses himself in the mystery, and only escapes by concluding that, as he knows nothing about it, it is the business of God and the Emperor, but none of his! All wonderful human inventions he sets down to the power of enchantment, without trying to find out their causes. It is an axiom in the Russian army "that the powers of reasoning are not expected in the ranks ;" and when this rule is broken through by an aspiring wight he is frequently rewarded for it by a severe corporal punishment. In consequence of this a Russian soldier is generally dirty in his habits. Fre

quently you see him bent like an old man, with his head down. He feels his position, but he has not the moral energy to attempt an escape from his tyrants. A leader could easily be found, but they would be afraid to follow, and the leader would be consigned to Siberia. A Russian

soldier is perhaps the most unhappy being in the world. When the Emperor inspected our regiment at St. Petersburg in 1853, he remarked that the men kept their eyes fixed on the ground, and did not appear in good spirits. The captains of companies were blamed for this, though I was burning to explain to the Colonel why the men looked dejected. However I remembered Siberia, and held my peace. Captain Gorieff flogged one of his men to make him laugh! He happened to be a man who seldom or never laughed-one of those morose-looking fellows that one meets sometimes. It is hardly to be credited, but after receiving one hundred lashes the man managed to get up a laugh, though I must say it bore a great affinity to the sobs that followed this effort. This is Russian justice! The outward appearance is all that is necessary for the chiefs. If a man has eaten nothing for two days he is still expected to laugh! Frequently the pork used for the preparation of the evening meal of casha is in a state wholly unfit for human food; even