forth across the bridge in the harbor, and about 9 o'clock a large force of infantry crossed the bridge, evidently preparing to resist the assault which was expected, and at the same time there was a movement toward Inkerman on the part of the army encamped in that locality.
When the French firing began in the morning, the working parties which crossed daily from the south to the north side were evidently ordered back again, with the expectation that an assault would be made during the course of the forenoon. From noon until five p.m., there was not much firing; then the French broke out again as vigorously as ever and continued the cannonade until half past seven, when darkness made it impossible to take accurate aim. Then there was a brief lull. Later in the evening, along the whole line, French and English, all the siege guns and mortars opened again and continued the fire throughout the night. Of course, accuracy of aim was out of the question during a night bombardment. The object was to prevent the Russians repairing their defences, and we knew that a shot fired in their direction would fall somewhere within the Russian lines, even though it might not hit a particular earthwork or make a hole through any specified building.
Orders were issued for all the batteries to begin an active bombardment as soon as daylight permitted, each gun being limited to fifty rounds. The whole line of the batteries, from Inkerman to the Quarantine, opened the cannonade at 5.30 a.m. This was continued for three hours; then there was a cessation until ten o'clock; then the firing was renewed until noon; then came a cessation until five o'clock, and there was another lull from half past six until seven. It must be understood that some firing was maintained during these lulls; had it been otherwise the silence would have been almost painful.
When the sun went down on Thursday night the bombardment began again and was kept up without cessation until an hour before daylight on Friday morning. Musketry fire was added to that of the artillery, the orders being to keep up a steady fusillade along the Russian front, about two hundred thousand rounds of cartridges being used every night after the bombard-
