On the 18th May, the _Charlemagne_, _Agamemnon_, _Mogador_, _Highflyer_, and _Sampson_, bombarded Redout-Kaleh, sparing only the Custom-house and Quarantine establishment. They then returned to Chouroucksu, and landed 800 troops at Redout-Kaleh. These, supported by 300 English and French, pursued the Russians, in number about 2000, who fell back on Kutais, which was speedily captured. On the 1st June, Admirals Dundas and Hamelin declared all the mouths of the Danube to be strictly blockaded, in order to cut off all supplies from the Russian army in the Dobrudscha. Shortly after, the English steam-frigates bombarded the forts at Sulina, and captured the commander, with all his men and guns. A sad loss was experienced by the British fleet, on this occasion, in the death of Captain Hyde Parker, of the _Firebrand_, who, while proceeding on an exploring expedition up the Danube, was fired upon from a stockade fort, thought to have been abandoned. The gallant officer, landing with his men to storm it, fell--shot through the heart by a rifle-ball. While prize after prize continued to arrive, in rapid succession, at Portsmouth and in the Thames, English troops, of all denominations, were “mustering in hot haste” at Gallipoli, Scutari, and Varna; Lord Raglan, as commander-in-chief, occupying in the first instance, the palace so recently tenanted by the Russian Ambassador at Constantinople. On the 14th June, the Duke of Cambridge with his staff, the brigade of Guards, and the Highland brigade (42nd, 79th, and 93d regiments), arrived at Varna, where a numerous Anglo-French army was already encamped. It is probable that the unexpected and retrograde movement of the Russians upon the Pruth--intelligence of which reached the allied generals about this time--occasioned a deviation from the plan of operations originally contemplated, as it obviated the necessity of any active co-operation with Omer Pacha’s army on the Danube. An expedition upon a gigantic scale was, however, planned, its destination being the Crimea and Sebastopol. It had been well, for many reasons, that so long a period had not been passed in inactivity at Varna, for sickness was making sad havoc among the officers and in the ranks; and the regiments which left England only a few weeks before in full health and vigor, now presented a pitiable contrast to their former condition. The French had suffered still more; for, besides the loss of _seven thousand_ men, during their brief but ill-advised encampment in the Dobrudscha, they were burying, for many weeks, more than 100 daily; and the effect of this visitation was telling fearfully upon the spirits of the survivors. Nor had the Baltic fleet, though in a much more temperate climate, escaped the scourge of cholera. We may mention, as a curious fact, that the sailing vessels experienced a happy immunity from the pestilence.