The second company of 113 strong, under Captain King, reinforced the corps in the Crimea on the 20th December. As the weather was severe and the road to the camp almost impassable, the company was attached to the invalid battalion at the port. Considerations for its convenience did not, however, long prevail, for the want of sappers at the siege brought an order from Lord Raglan to remove the company on Christmas-day with its camp equipage and stores to the right attack. To assist the men on the march his lordship sent 150 Turks to meet them at the French barrier near Kadikoi, guided by sergeant Ramsay and another sapper who had reached the rendezvous before the company. The arrival of the new sappers elicited no concern from the stolid Turks, who, seated on the ground, smoking their fuming chibouks, declined to attend to any orders which should impose on them the labour of carrying the stores. Captain King did his best to beguile their obedience, but without effect. It so happened that colour-sergeant Brown of the company, who had been in Syria, had picked up a smattering of Arabic and knew something of the native idiosyncracy. Permitted by his captain, he tried to win the acquiescence of the Turks by appealing gestures and the stammering out of a few imperfect words, which must have grated on their ears as so much jargon; but his best arts, either to force or delude them, failed to dissipate their obstinacy. In the meantime he told off the officers and men to their duties. Brown wore on his breast three medals, one of which he had received from the Sultan for services in Syria. On its reverse was an Ottoman inscription, similar to the standard impression on the Turkish money. Curious to know the history of the medals, a young officer of the detachment stepped up to the sergeant, and handling the decorations, was surprised to find that one of them was the gift of the Sultan. Naming the fact to a group of his brother-officers, it quickly spread among the men, who, thinking that Brown was invested with authority from his Majesty, bounded to their feet, loaded themselves like mules with the equipage, and paced away with their burdens at a warm and earnest rate, stopping not, though fatigued, till their arrival at the sapper camp before Sebastopol. What was more remarkable in the affair, was the refusal of the Turks, though indisposed to give their labour without adequate compensation, to take tickets for working pay. Lieutenant Ewart, at a loss to conjecture the reason, whether to ascribe it to disaffection or disinterestedness, was not a little tickled when informed, that the demonstration arose from the Turks regarding the sergeant as a pacha.