Pursuing our march through a thickly-wooded country, we could distinctly see the forts of Sebastopol but we kept well away from the range of their guns, and made all haste, by a flank movement, not the least expected by the enemy, to reach Balaclava, in order to form a base of operations and establish a communication with the fleet. During this march, parties of our corps and the 11th Hussars formed the advance guard, keeping in sight of Lord Raglan and his staff, and we suddenly came upon the enemy's baggage guard, which we quickly dispersed, and an enormous quantity of baggage, principally clothing, was instantly surrounded. The carriage of Prince Menschikoff also fell into our hands, but I did not see it, being otherwise engaged: my share of the plunder was a capital cloak of fine blue cloth, lined throughout with fur, which I took from a box, the lid of which had been smashed open by a private of the 88th regiment, with a blow from the butt end of his rifle. I also managed to secure a couple of flannel shirts, but having pursued the enemy two or three miles on the road, we returned too late to share in the most valuable spoil that fell into the hands of our comrades. Halting next at the village of Tractir, or Traktir, near which is a place called Mackenzie's farm, which only consists of plantations of fir, and stores of wood grown for the use of the enemy's navy. This the French set fire to, and we left it blazing merrily, to resume our march on Balaclava, where a portion of the fleet arrived before us, and the guns of the _Agamemnon_, commanded by Sir E. Lyons, were at once called into requisition (in conjunction with our infantry), to reduce a fort from whence several rounds of shot were fired on our approach, but the commandant of the place soon surrendered, and we entered the town, or rather village, without further opposition. Having taken prisoner an Englishman named Upton, a relative of the engineer whom the enemy had employed during the erection of the forts at Sebastopol, we found the object of his capture was to obtain information from him as to the strength of the army, the forts, and the positions of the field columns; but he refused to give any information, and, I believe, was set at liberty. From this time the infantry, artillery, sappers, and commissariat were as busy as bees, preparing to invest Sebastopol, landing siege-trains, stores, etc, and the enemy continually kept up a dropping fire upon everything that came within range of their forts. The cavalry from this to the battle of Balaclava was principally employed on picket duty, reconnoitring and foraging, with an occasional skirmish with the Cossacks; but the infantry had a hard time of it in the trenches, and, what was worse than all, the cholera was still busy in our midst; indeed, up to this time we had lost more men by disease than in battle. Worked as hard as labourers on a railway, under fire