“The desolation which reigned on the scene of action cannot be described. The fields of corn were trampled down, and so completely beaten into the mire that they had the appearance of stubble. The ground was completely ploughed up, in many places, with the charge of the cavalry; and the horses’ hoofs, deep stamped into the earth, left the traces where many a dreadful struggle had been. The whole field was strewed with the melancholy vestiges of devastation: soldiers’ caps, pierced with many a ball,--eagles that had ornamented them,--badges of the legion of honor,--cuirasses’ fragments,--broken arms, belts, and scabbards, shreds of tattered cloth, shoes, cartridge-boxes, gloves, Highland bonnets, feathers steeped in mud and gore,--French novels and German testaments,--scattered music belonging to the bands,--packs of cards, and innumerable papers of every description, thrown out of the pockets of the dead, by those who had pillaged them,--love-letters, and letters from mothers to sons, and from children to parents;--all, all these, and a thousand-fold more, that cannot be named, were scattered about in every direction.” The total loss of the allies, during the four days, was sixty-one thousand and five hundred, and of the French forty-one thousand. EUROPE AND THE ALLIES OF TO-DAY. CHAPTER VII. TURKEY AND RUSSIA. Origin of the Ottoman Empire--Siege and Capture of Constantinople by the Turks--Mahomet--The Sultans--_Abdul Medjid_--His popularity and power--The Koran. The Russian Empire--Area and population--Social organization --Religious policy--Nobility--Serfs--Conscription--The Army --Progress of Russia and extension of her frontiers--_Nicholas_ --Poland.