After the sortie had failed, corporal Lendrim, led by the groans of a wounded man about thirty yards in front of the battery, clambered over the parapet, and followed by two linesmen, moved to the spot where the sufferer was lying. He was a Russian. No lack of bullets were flying at the time to warn the corporal and his comrades of the risk they incurred, but holding to the task they had humanely undertaken, they carried him to the parapet. Gently laying him down, they were about to renew their lift, when the last struggle seized the poor Russian, and in a few seconds he was no more. Too weak to afford an adequate force for the emergencies of the siege, irrespective of the demands which had been fruitlessly made for its services in the rear, it was considered of moment to augment the corps. Accordingly, on the 22nd March, an authority was given for forming four new companies of 120 sergeants and rank and file each, by which the royal sappers and miners were swollen from a strength of 2,658 officers and men to one of 3,140 of all ranks. The new companies were designated the 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 26th. The first two were raised on the 1st April; the others were not embodied before September and October. The 23rd company was constituted a driver troop for the conveyance of the royal engineer field equipment. Hitherto the engineers had to depend in great measure for the movement of its stores on the resources of other departments, which too frequently accorded insufficient assistance. To be at the mercy of any caprice or department was undesirable in a service whose success, in degree, depended upon the prompt transport of its materials; and the suggestions on this question, derived from the experience of the Peninsular engineers, meeting with the approbation of Lord Panmure, the troop was called into existence. Very readily was it formed, for the standard to recruit ostlers and others of that genus, was reduced so low that a lad of ordinary growth could easily command the admitted altitude. In a few days the necessary number had been enlisted; but this troop of dwarfs, accustomed though they had been to horses and driving, required some time to throw them into shape and order, and this could only be done by discipline and imparting to them as much of the art of military equitation and manœuvring as was consistent with their organization and intended services. One hundred and twenty round-bodied cobs, purchased at an expense of 36_l._ each, formed the complement of horses for this novel troop. Captain Siborne was its commanding officer. A few months after its formation, Sir John Burgoyne inspected the corps at Woolwich, and he was more than surprised at the smartness of the company and the expertness with which the young troopers managed their horses. A sergeant from the royal artillery—William Handyside—was promoted into the company with the rank of Lieutenant and Adjutant, but before the