roots of the grass; hence the washing of the linen and other ablutions become most difficult.

Some of the citizens exhume the carcases of horses, which they devour. A report comes in this evening that the advanced guard of Selim Pasha is already at Chiplakli, twenty miles off.

Nov. 20.-A deep discontent pervades the camp: twenty-five men deserted last night from the Karadagh. In future subaltern officers do the sentry duty. We now discuss the probabilities of a retreat across the mountains. We have about 2000 men in hospital, and more than 100 deaths per diem: we have only seven days' provision left. We have no artillery horses or cavalry; moreover our troops, though admirable for patient endurance and courage, are not to be depended on for manoeuvres on the plain, besides which most of them are too weak for an hour's march, the ground is covered with snow, and the nights are intensely cold. A retreat would seem

hopeless.

Nov. 21.-A heavy fall of snow during the night. No more news to cheer us. We have almost reached the limits of human endurance; our soldiers lie dead and dying in every part of the camp. The citizens look reproachfully at us; "their visage is blacker than a coal, their skin cleaveth to their bones." They exclaim, “Let us go out and fight; why remain here to die?" "They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger, for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field."

Nov. 22.-About 5 A.M., while yet dark, three or four guns, loaded with shell, are fired into the encampment

near Kanli tabia. The troops there are called to arms; only six or seven manage to drag themselves from their tents: twenty men might easily take any battery, did they but know our real state. At 6 A.м. a messenger comes in with a despatch from Selim Pasha to the Mushir. He was to have left Erzeroom for Kars on the 16th, and would hasten on. Besides this veracious Turkish document there is a little note in cipher from Mr. Brant; it is as follows:-"Selim Pasha won't advance, although Major Stuart is doing his utmost to make him. Omer Pasha has not advanced far from Soukhum Kale. I fear you have no hope but in yourselves; you can depend on no help in this quarter."

Several naked corpses are found in the camp, since the threadbare clothes of the dead soldier are seized by his shivering comrades. The mortality in the hospitals is

most disheartening.

Nov. 25.-General Williams and his aide-de-camp Teesdale ride over under a flag of truce to the Russian camp. They are well received by Mouravieff. The General tells his chivalrous enemy that he has no wish to rob him of his laurels; the fortress contains a large train of artillery, with numerous standards, and a variety of arms, but the army has not yet surrendered, nor will it without certain articles of capitulation. "If you grant not these," exclaimed the General, "every gun shall be burst, every standard burnt, every trophy destroyed, and you may then work your will on a famished crowd." "I have no wish," answered Mouravieff, "to wreak an unworthy vengeance on a gallant and long-suffering army, which has covered itself with glory, and only

yields to famine.” "Look here," he exclaimed, pointing to a lump of bread and a handful of roots, "what splendid troops must these be who can stand to their arms in this severe climate on food such as this! General Williams, you have made yourself a name in history, and posterity will stand amazed at the endurance, the courage, and the discipline which this siege has called forth in the remains of an army. Let us arrange a capitulation that will satisfy the demands of war without outraging humanity." I leave my readers to imagine anything more touching than the interview between these gallant leaders, whose eyes were suffused with tears, while their hearts were big with sentiments of high honour and graceful benevolence.

The terms of capitulation, arranged to-day, to be laid before the Turkish officers, were briefly as follows:—

"The officers and soldiers of the regular army were to pile arms in camp, and march out with their music and colours, and surrender themselves prisoners of war to the Russian army."

("And," here exclaimed General Mouravieff to the secretary, "write that, in admiration of the noble and devoted courage displayed by the army of Kars, the officers shall be allowed to retain their swords, as a mark of honour and respect.")

"All private property, the castle, mosques, and other public buildings, are to be respected, and the inhabitants. protected from pillage or insult.

"The militia, the Bashi-Bozooks, are allowed to depart unarmed to their homes.

"The medical corps, and other non-combatants, are to

be released, and be free to serve again in any other

army.

"A certain number of foreign officers, and the subjects of states not at war with Russia, are to be allowed to depart, on condition of not serving again during the continuance of the war."

After a somewhat long interview with General Mouravieff, General Williams returns to the camp. The prospect of capitulation is as yet kept a secret, but the sudden disappearance of General Kmety and Feizi Pasha (General Kollman) gives rise to much whispering in the camp. These officers escaped last night, and are on their way to Erzeroom. They have our best wishes and prayers.

Nov. 27.-General Williams and his whole staff, with two Turkish officers, ride over to the Russian camp, and dine with General Mouravieff and his staff. The latter general is a stout and rather short man, whose age is about seventy; but seldom have I seen a more vigorouslooking person at his time of life. He has a decidedly Russian cast of countenance, and belongs to a very old Muscovite family. His staff treat him with the utmost respect, never, unless when bidden, presuming to sit in his presence. He speaks with almost equal fluency Russian, French, English, German, and Turkish; possibly he may know other languages besides. I leave the reader to imagine how we enjoyed a good and even luxurious dinner. We were allowed to walk about the Russian camp, and see

*The above-named gallant officers left by full permission, I may say by the advice, of General Williams; since they feared that the Russians would be bound by treaty to deliver them over to the neverdying vengeance of Austria,

what we chose. The men were hutted in a warm and comfortable way, their dwellings being made almost wholly underground, with fireplaces to insure ventilation. All the officers' huts were furnished with glass windows. Anything more admirable than the order, regularity, and well-being of this camp could not be conceived. Each soldier was warmly clad in becoming, well-preserved clothes, and seemed fit for an inspection on parade at St. Petersburg. It was observed that the Russians had built a much finer city than Kars itself, and it was proposed to call it Yeni Kars, or New Kars. All the horses of the regular cavalry were housed in spacious stables, half underground ; but the Cossack horses, with hair like that of a Newfoundland dog, were exposed night and day to the inclement weather. Vast stacks of hay were seen in the neighbourhood of each cavalry camp.

One great fault, however, was visible. All round the precincts of each cantonment the filth is not to be described; the wonder was how this glaring defect could exist in a camp otherwise so well ordered.

There could scarcely have been less than 30,000 men here assembled. While gazing at and admiring the military spectacle, the completeness of which was strange to my eyes, I could not help exclaiming (sotto voce, of course), "And is this the army we hurled back from our breastworks? Are these the battalions that our ragged and hungry handful of men held in check for seven hours, and drove back to their camp? And now we deliver ourselves up to the vanquished! we lay down our arms to our conquered enemy, starved by the dishonest jobbery of rascally pashas, and the wicked apathy and unworthy