The rifle-pits on the left advance sap of the right attack had fatally annoyed the besiegers in their foremost works, and it was determined either to destroy or seize them. With this object they were attacked at half-past nine o’clock in the evening of the 19th April. There were 600 bayonets of the 77th regiment engaged in this nocturnal assault, commanded by Colonel Egerton. When the orders were given, the troops rushed forward, and after a warm engagement for about half an hour, were masters of the pits, with a loss of two officers and several men. Colonel Egerton also sustained a contusion of the thigh. As soon as the covering sentries were posted, Lieutenant-Colonel Tylden advanced with the working party of 150 men, headed by colour-sergeant Henry McDonald and six sappers, under the personal orders of Captain H. C. C. Owen and Lieutenant Baynes of the engineers. The Russian gabions were quickly faced about, the sand-bags thrown down, and after reducing the earth, the enemy’s pits were incorporated with a communication which led to the boyau in rear. The lodgment was achieved in about two hours, under a roar of missiles from rifles and ordnance, with so little confusion and so much gallantry, that the affair deserves to be characterized as a dashing exploit. Colour-sergeant McDonald took the lead in the sap, followed by private Thomas Ewen and other sappers who planted the gabions as fast as they could be handed up. The officers of engineers assisted pressing in their turn to the very head. At intervals they and the sergeant moved among the workmen, instructing them how to fill the gabions and where to lodge the sand-bags. As the sergeant was pushing up the trench, he stumbled over a prostrate officer; and on inquiring, found that Captain Owen was at his feet, dangerously wounded. McDonald proposed to bear him from danger on his back, but the captain, preferring a stretcher for the purpose, one, after a little time, was brought by the sergeant. On this field convenience Lieutenant Baynes and McDonald carried the wounded officer bleeding from the pit. His left leg was afterwards amputated and he lived to obtain the honours due to his heroic efforts. Finding some sappers in the old trench sending up the gabions, Lieutenant Baynes relieved the sergeant and sent him again to the pits, following himself as soon as he had despatched the captain to the camp; but in forcing to the front, this young officer was mortally wounded in the chest and arm. In retracing his steps, McDonald was astonished to find the working party running from the lodgment. Asking the reason, he was informed that the Russians, in some strength, had driven up to the work and forced them back. At once McDonald ordered them to stand, and after facing them to the right-about, drew his sword and placed himself at their head. Ewen was there ready to second his authority with any amount of daring he might find it necessary to command. Seeing the Russians still