was broken and scattered. Each soldier seemed to feast upon danger, bayonets were several times crossed, and more than one hand grasping the musket was cut through by the long Kabyle flissa. Dead and wounded, Kabyles and French, lay heaped together, and there was no time to remove them, for on the plateaux, where they fell, which was taken and retaken alternately, the conflict continued raging. If, overpowered by numbers, we yielded for a moment, the whole party would cry out, "Forward! forward!" and again rush to the attack, led on by Colonel Espinasse, who was always conspicuous where the danger was greatest. Finally, the convoy had marched past, and we could continue our route.

succour

The 205 wounded and 26 killed, amongst whom were two officers, were, as soon as arrived from the rear-guard, placed on the backs of mules, and carried to the field hospital. In this combat was seen once more the influence which a commander may exert over his men, and another as remarkable instance of the same kind occurred again in the course of this expedition. On the 30th, the column being among the Ouled-Aissa, spies had informed the General that the neighbouring tribes were preparing for an attack on

the camp during the night; therefore a necessary precaution was consequently taken, the great guards doubled, and the soldiers remaining up, close to their piled arms, were ready to handle them at a moment's notice. At about ten o'clock the buzzing sound of distant multitudes in movement began to be heard, and, a little afterwards, the long shrill cries, half-drowned and scattered in the air, of different bands wide apart, signalling and communicating with each other. A storm was then coming on, and the wind getting up, when, at the order of the General, every soldier took his musket from the pile, and stood in his ranks immoveable, silent, waiting. Not a sound was to be heard throughout the bivouac, whilst the noise of the enemy, like an invading torrent overflowing its banks, approached nearer and nearer, till their scramble through the bushes, and the dry wood crackling under their feet, might be distinctly heard. At moments long flashes of lightning discovered the horizon, and lit up the camp on which darkness the next second again fell. The enemy was now quite close, and it was a question whether or not the great guards on the North had been surprised; for shouts, coming from a craggy height, occupied by the

VOL. II.

X

Orleans Chasseurs, made the General very uneasy. Meantime, on this very height, the Chasseurs, lying flat on their faces, their bayonets being stuck in the earth, that their glitter might not betray them, were waiting for the orders of Captain Lapalle. The Kabyles saw them not, they saw no obstacles, and were advancing full of confidence, till one of them stumbled and fell over a chasseur, when "up and at them," cried out Captain Lapalle, and the company were on their feet in a moment, charging with the bayonet a host of Kabyles, so frightened at their sudden appearance that they flung down their arms and fled, spreading terror all around them.

In spite of the hot weather, which greatly aggravated our fatigue, the column continued its forays up to the 18th of July. Its work being then accomplished, General St. Arnaud, on whom the whole responsibility of the expedition had rested, returned to Constantine, and the troops to their cantonments, where, after a few days repose, they were engaged in those useful civil occupations which invariably in Africa succeed to the glorious toils of war.

One evening, under the tent of Caid Mohamed, of the tribe of the Harads, I heard an Arab of the South entertaining his comrades with a war story, in which he told how brave soldiers, badly commanded, had been beaten by an inferior foe. The moral the story-teller drew from his narrative was this:-"That a herd of deer, commanded by a lion, are better than a herd of lions commanded by a deer. But as for you,' said he, turning towards us, 'in times to come, when fathers shall tell their children the history of your foot soldiers, and your troopers, they will say, victory followed their steps, for lions were led on by lions." "

FINIS.

M. S. Myers, Printer, 22, Tavistock Street; Covent Garden.