advance pushing on at a trot, and the infantry nearly at a pas de cours, we reached the entrance of the gorge that formed the sole and a difficult approach to the city. The marshal, General Schramm and the general staff of the army, at once galloped up, with a strong escort, to the summit of the height at the right of the entrance to the gorge, to get a coup d'oeil of the ground, and determine on measures for the attack. There the city was before us, perched on a plateau that jutted from the side of a mountain, that arose perpendicularly behind it. The smoke now curled high up in wreaths, while the lurid glare of the fire shone at every crevice, or burst forth forking from the roofs. Whilst in the midst of this scene of confusion, by the aid of our glasses, from the height on which the marshal and his staff were assembled, the dark uniforms of the regular infantry of Abd-elKader might be distinguished, as they were seen driving out before them the reluctant inhabitants of the place. The city, like all Moorish towns, was beautiful in the extreme, for nothing can be more picturesque than the irregular outline of their houses, as of masses grouped together in the very soul of variety, with their low tiled roofs reminding one of scenes in Italy; minarets, seen shooting up from the mass or peering from the midst of the cypress and the myrtle, told of times when the Saracen, proud as his own crescent, had made his history the interest of all nations. The city was enveloped in flames, their own act; but an Arab was never known to yield a mountain retreat without bloodshed, and a fight to avenge. Measures were therefore instantly taken. The principal part of the infantry, formed into two heavy columns of attack, were marched over heights to the right and left of the gorge, whilst another portion was left at its mouth to repel the Arabs who had molested our rear-guard, whilst breaking up from camp, but who more particularly now were appearing in great numbers from the direction of Oran. They already showed themselves to be the principal force of the Bedouin cavalry coming up, and might now, taking all in sight, amount to some six or seven thousand. The cavalry, artillery, and convoy in the meanwhile filed through, and all con

36

centrated again in closely packed columns, and by crowded divisions on a plateau just beneath that of the town, awaiting and holding themselves ready for the signal of the onset. At the same time some batteries of artillery were placed in position on a height that arose somewhat to the left to bear upon some pieces of the enemy which commenced firing on us from two different points, and to cover the advance of two heavy columns of attack, which commenced scaling the heights." Nothing could have been more beautiful than the advance of the infantry; the right column directed its course about half a mile or more to the right, attacking the town directly in front, but it was more hidden from our view by the gardens and groves and vineyards; that of the left was the whole time immediately in sight. They advanced with arms sur l'épaule-droit, ("right shoulder shift arms," or, "arms at will,") a company or two were thrown out in skirmishing order just before them. But for the scattering fire from them and some Arabs under cover of the occasional underwood, and from behind rocks, and the bursting of shells, which, directed with wonderful precision, seemed always thrown just immediately before the head of the column, one might well have supposed, from the quiet demeanor of the soldiery,that they were on an ordinary march. Such is the character of the French soldiers; and this perfect nonchalance, more perhaps than even their excitability when aroused, makes them the best service troops in Europe. Taken as a whole, the scene was spiritstirring in the extreme, for though bloodshed had not commenced,

36 The fire of these pieces was without particular effect. Two of their balls fell sufficiently near to us; one being between the cavalry, who were in close column of squadrons, and the ambulances with the sick and wounded, the space between us being but some fifteen yards; falling in the mud of a spring there, it did not ricochet. The other ball fell in the very centre of the marshal's staff, but bounded again over their heads without killing or wounding one. They were on a small rise close behind us.

37 The distance from the foot of the height to its summit, the plateau on which the town was situated, was from half a mile to three quarters. We were, as we now stood, scarcely higher than at the entrance of the gorge, but the columns of infantry had mounted and descended considerable heights before they all united on this lower plateau. The length of the gorge through which the convoy had defiled, must have been near a mile; and the distance from the height on which the staff first stood, to the town, the height being nearly equally high, must also have been just about a mile; the ordinary Arab dress, with the white bournous, is so different from the dark uniform of their regular infantry, that they are easily distinguished.

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there was all the preparation for war and battle, as if rivers of blood were soon to follow. Here were parked, under charge of some regiments of reserve, the defenceless portion of the army, the convoy of subsistence, the hospital of sick and wounded, the pieces of heavy ordnance, all breathless with expectation. Near them and on the road-side, in column of squadrons, stood the cavalry brigade, holding themselves in reserve to, at the proper juncture, rush forth and by ascending the height by the road, take part in the fighting on the upper plateau. Some half a mile to the left and more advanced, were placed, actively manoeuvering their pieces and firing incessantly, the batteries of cover for the attack, not the least animating part of the scene, as, by the ricochet of their shots, or the bursting of the shells, one traced the execution they were doing. Forming part of this great living panorama were the divisions that were now actively ascending to storm the heights, and it was on this that all of our attention became concentrated. When they had nearly reached the crest, the drums beat; arms flashed in the sunbeams as they were shifted for the attack, and the men, in a solid body, rushed forward to the charge, It was truly a sight worth years of peace. They disappeared over the hill, a momentary silence ensued, the artillery no longer firing. In some few moments a desultory firing that arose, though both parties were out of sight, proved to us that the opposition had been but weak, and that the enemy were now firing, fighting in retreat. The column of the right, which though more hidden from view had not been less active, had also gained the town, and their firing, heard off to the right, proved that the Arabs were retiring in that quarter from the town. At this moment a staff officer came at full speed across the plain, and riding up to general Blancford, at the head of the column, delivered orders which set us, too, in full motion; and at a gallop we overcame the short distance to where the path wound up the hill. Squadrons were at once broken into

38 There were some eight pieces in battery; one of them, by some mismanagement or other, recoiling, whilst firing, rolled off the edge of the height, and came rumbling to the bottom.

fours, and at a full trot which soon became a gallop, increasing in briskness with the excitement of the general and our colonel, who were leading us, we forced our horses over the rocky and broken road. As we reached the summit and rapidly formed line to the left, the rearmost horsemen of the column were bringing up at a full The colonel's orders in the plan of the battle, had been to advance, and forming upon the plateau charge to the right or left, as might suit the occasion, to cut off the retreat of the Arabs. But to our great chagrin, when we arrived and formed up, though firing was going on within less than a quarter of a mile from us, the ground was such as to preclude the utter possibility of cavalry movements.40 This was the last move of the day, the retreating Arabs were soon driven out of reach, and though the convoy did not all get up till late, the army was encamped as fast as the different corps came into position. As for ourselves, we were made to bivouac in an Arab graveyard, bristling with tombstones, (not only head and foot stones, but long side ones to boot;) still any place was a rest, and the excitement of the day needed it.

June 9th, 10th and 11th-These three days were spent at Milianah, and afforded us the opportunity of examining an Arab town in its true original state, for though in most parts everything destructible, and all woodwork, was burnt, still the thick stone walls and roofs of many of the houses were left standing, and some edifices, particularly the Dey's were also as perfect as if fire had been set to it but in mockery. And so it was suspected, for, whilst the Dey's and some other principal houses were thus entire, in the quarter of the Jews' bazaar not a stone seemed to be left upon another, and the streets in this quarter were piled with ashes, with now and then just sufficient left of some particular article to give a clue to the business of the vender. As the graveyard in which the

39 I belonged to the 4th squadron, but at the moment of advance, and by somewhat bolder riding, and knowing my powerful gray, I had placed myself close to the colonel at the head.

40 As as incident not worth mentioning, but that it now occurs to me, the colonel, seeing some three or four Arabs, retiring rather leisurely sent a corporal and four or five men to quicken their movements. Young Duegme, though not ordered, went with them, more as a frolic.

1st Chasseurs were encamped was just outside the town, several of us, after seeing our horses tended to, stole into the city; the sentinels at the gate (it was like Medeah, a walled town, and with some defences) being authorised to admit officers, and them only. But our curiosity was hazardous for ourselves, for as we passed in some quarters we were continually exposed to the falling of burning rafters or heated walls; and once or twice escaped imminent danger as if by a miracle, for the streets, to make it worse, were very narrow. An important and interesting fact was now discovered, hitherto unknown, that Milianah had been formerly the site of a Roman town, and its proof was continually finding on the large stones with which the houses were built, Roman inscriptions, much defaced, expressed much in their usual difficult abbreviations, but withal a word here and there sufficiently plain to be easily defined by the casual observer acquainted with the Latin. As I had visited all the different quarters in Algiers, the palaces of some former rich Turks, the bazaar where yet lingered the avaricious Jew the casbar11 of the Dey, and their old-timed forts in the harbor, and had moreover accurately studied Blida, though there, too, it was a mass of ruins, (the work of the French,) I was more quick to catch at and fill out such parts of the city as were incomplete. As I mentioned above, some few edifices were still perfect, as if fired merely to comply with the order of general destruction in form, that against the return of the owners, should they, as in the case of Cherchell and Medeah, be invited back, they might be found available. Perhaps it was hurry, or the accidental sufferance of the flames, no doubt the intention of the regular soldiers of Abdel-Kader might have been first turned to the Jews, the object of suspicion, possessing small articles of value that might be seized with impunity to their own use, though accounted for as consumed. To him who has perused the poetic pages of the Alhambra, what subject is there that its beautiful author does not convert by

41 Usually spelled Kasbah.