206 TKAVEL, ADVENTUKE, AXD SPOET. 



Those only who have witnessed an operation of 

 war can imagine how surely and speedily the work 

 of destruction follows, and how, without actual 

 violence or plunder, the careless hand and reckless 

 foot can cause as much disorder and ruin as the 

 ravages of the spoiler. This fort, two hours after 

 it was taken, exhibited an extraordinary scene of 

 destruction and confusion, though it had not been 

 given up to plunder. Knapsacks, broken arms, loaves 

 of hard, black bread, lay strewn about the floors; 

 apartments had been burst open, their contents 

 broken or scattered ; and in passing through the 

 galleries, we had to climb over heaps of broken 

 furniture, rubbish, and lumber. Even the dispensary, 

 with its gallipots, splints, and phials, had not escaped 

 the ruthless hand of some worker of disorder. All 

 this was the work of the thoughtless and curious. 

 It must be confessed that our allies had little or no 

 part in it. 



It was a melancholy place now, marked every- 

 where by desolation, and pervaded by that peculiar 

 odour, ^ Russe that compound smell of damp leather 

 and rank oil which prevails wherever a Russian dwells 

 or moves. 



All kinds of marvellous stories were afloat after- 

 wards, of things seen and found in the fort. Among 

 others was a tale that fifty bodies were found headed 

 up in casks of lime-water, finely potted and pickled. 

 It is strange that the human mind is never content 



