Sent scaling ladders to _Bulldog_ for conveyance to Admiral Chads. General Barraguay d’Hilliers proceeded to Bomarsund in _La Reine Hortense_. Embarked seventy marines under command of Captain Clavell, and Lieutenants Brooke and Davidson, on board _Dawn_, in compliance with a request made by Barraguay d’Hilliers, but reluctantly acceded to by Sir Charles Napier, for land service. Not, as the General informed me, that he required the force, but that he was anxious we should share in all operations; such being the express wish of the French Emperor. Lieutenant Lennox attended as A.D.C. to Colonel Graham. All remaining transports and steamers proceeded up. Commander-in-Chief, attended by the Captain of the Fleet, Rear-Admiral Seymour and suite, hoisted his flag in _Bulldog_. CHAPTER LIII THE BOMBARDMENT OF BOMARSUND [Sidenote: 1854.] Before Bomarsund was regularly invested there were places where our wardroom officers could land by twos and threes for exercise, when it was not worth while for the Russian Circular Towers to expend ammunition. On one occasion, when the officers had taken my nephew, Harry Stephenson, a round shot buried itself within a few yards of them. They dispersed in haste, all but young Harry, who picked up a pointed stick and commenced digging at his first trophy. The _St. Jean d’Acre_ and the _Cumberland_ were, with many others, at Ledsund, five-and-twenty miles from Bomarsund; but Seymour and I thought, for the good of the Service, we should be eye-witnesses of the preparations. The troops left for Bomarsund on the afternoon of the 7th. Late in the evening Henry Seymour and I started in my gig, sailing or pulling easily. [Sidenote: Aug. 8.] In a thick fog, about 3 A.M., we landed on a wooden pier to cook an early coffee. While this was going on we heard _three_ heavy explosions. Seymour thought it must be the Admirals’ daylight guns. But there were only two Admirals! Although in a dense fog, with our boat’s compass we knew pretty well where we ought to be, and found ourselves alongside the _Blenheim_, 60, Captain Hon. Fred Pelham, who gave us all the information we required. The ball was to open at daylight, by the French steamer _Phlegethon_ and English frigate _Amphion_, who had ascertained the exact range of the Russian fort that was intended to destroy any force that might attempt a landing. After a while we found ourselves close to the very fort on which the frigates were to open fire. Neither seeing anything nor hearing the slightest noise we entered by one of the embrasures. It was deserted, but before doing so the Russians had attempted to burst the guns, and had only partially succeeded. One gun had the muzzle blown off; one only had completely burst; a third had gone off, but half-buried itself in the earth. There were in all five heavy eight-inch guns. These three explosions were what Seymour and myself had heard while drinking our coffee on the wooden pier.