Another attack followed on the 5th November, in which the English and French, numbering about 14,000 bayonets, were opposed by an army of nearly 60,000 fighting men. For upwards of ten hours the conflict lasted, and ended in a victory to the allies, while the Russians, driven from the hills at all points, took refuge in flight. The losses in the Anglo-French ranks were very severe, but those of the enemy, incredible as it may seem, far exceeded the total force of the allies engaged. This splendid achievement, in which the soldiers stood against overwhelming odds with unconquerable firmness and bravery, will ever rank in the annals of war as one of the most remarkable struggles of modern times. Occupied in the trenches, and forming a guard over the engineer park, the sappers and miners did not fire a shot in either of the engagements. They were, however, drawn up while the fight at Inkermann was raging, prepared to defend the siege depôt had the Russians penetrated to the engineer plateau. Being in position during the battle, the sappers and miners have been considered entitled to the Inkermann decoration, and 341 non-commissioned officers and men of the corps present on the occasion had the honour of receiving the clasp. Though the night was thick and foggy, the Russian columns were seen surging towards Inkermann from the Mamelon. None of our siege guns could be brought to bear on them; and as it was considered an object of the first moment to rake the masses, orders were given to alter the embrasure of a gun in the old right Lancaster battery, beyond the right of the first parallel. Lance-corporal Trimble, a young and agile soldier, had charge of the two embrasures in the battery, and had with him four men of the 47th regiment to assist in the repairs. No sooner was the decision communicated to the corporal, than he leaped into the opening, followed by his party. Gabions, barrels, fascines, and sand-bags, quickly disappeared; all were thrown or pushed into the ditch in front of the battery, as the readiest means of performing a service from which so much was expected. Then commenced the reformation of the splay by cutting away full half of the merlon on the right cheek, which separated the 24-pounder from the Lancaster gun. When finished, the embrasure had a skew form, with a widened mouth; but as the service was pressing, and the artillerymen impatient—for twice did they stop the work to try the effect of a few rounds—it could not be revetted, and the parapet was necessarily left without a gabion to bank up the earth. The 47th men took a bold and active part in the service, and within an hour, under a fire that would have made many a head reel, the corporal and his men completed the alteration. Barely had they jumped from the opening, when the gunners recommenced a cannonade from the Lancaster which made deadly gaps in the Russian battalions, as in winding round the Mamelon they retreated to their own lines.