The effect on our men was almost miraculous. The sight of the foe strongly entrenched, and determined to wait their attack, stimulated them in an extraordinary degree. Fatigued as they were by the labours they had undergone,--despondent from their five nights’ melancholy bivouac on the wet earth, it seemed as if a new life were suddenly infused into them. Diarrhœa and dysentery had not quite departed from their ranks, and many had returned to the vessels, unable to accompany the march. But when they stood on the hill-tops on that memorable morn, and saw the tents of the Russian army, not a man but felt the strength of a giant, and burned with a fierce desire to cross bayonets with the enemy. Many a brave fellow, who had staggered thus far leaning on a comrade’s arm, and ready to drop behind and perish by the wayside, begged for a draught of brandy, and then, forgetting his weakness, and deriving new strength from the occasion, shouldered his musket, took his wonted position among his comrades, and marched bravely to the encounter. Although the spot where they had bivouacked was only three miles distant from the river, it was mid-day by the time the allied armies had reached its banks, and were drawn up in battle array. It had been arranged by the generals that the French should commence the attack, and they occupied the extreme right of the extended line. The division commanded by General Bosquet, including those renowned warriors, the African Zouaves, rested upon the sea, and the left of their army consisted of Prince Napoleon’s division. Joining this wing of our allies, the veteran Sir De Lacy Evans was posted with the Second Division, supported by the Third Division under Sir Richard England. Sir George Brown’s Light Division came next; and the Duke of Cambridge led his magnificent body of Guards and Highlanders to the extreme left, as a support to Sir George Brown. Sir George Cathcart had the important but less showy duty of acting as a reserve, and, in conjunction with the cavalry under the Earl of Cardigan, guarding the attacking forces from any sudden _coup_ by the Cossacks, who were hovering in suspicious proximity to our rear.