Hervey 11 - On His Majesty's Service Read Online Free PDF Page A

sojourn … And not to render a complete account of what has transpired other than to refer us to his despatches, which appear to travel very much more slowly than does his lordship.’
    Colonel Youell could only sympathize; trying to regulate the Earl of Lucan’s elder son was, by all accounts, a fool’s errand. ‘Indeed, Lord Hill.’
    ‘Do you recollect the despatch? Are you able to give me its import – until I have opportunity to peruse it fully?’
    Youell, anticipating the request for a summary, had underlined the salient sentences in the copy made for the record. He had done so, too, with a certain distaste (which would have come as a surprise to Hervey): he had not met George Bingham, but what he had heard did not dispose him to think at all highly of an officer so improbably rich and assured of his right to command. For though Bingham was not yet thirty, with the wealth of his father’s Irish estates at his disposal, he had been able to purchase, for a sum, it was said, approaching £22,000, the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 17th Lancers. But there again, to his credit he had travelled to the seat of war between the Tsar and the Sultan so that he might be shot over – officially, to accompany the Russian army in their campaign against the Ottomans in Bulgaria, and to relate what he observed to the Horse Guards – for although wealth might buy the Seventeenth smarter uniforms and better horseflesh, it was no substitute for some schooling in other than mock battle.
    He took the fair copy from his portfolio. ‘It is written off Varna, my lord, aboard His Imperial Majesty’s ship Pallas , whither Lord Bingham had been taken by stretcher, and is signed the seventeenth of September. I fancy it must therefore have come by St Petersburg. We had the ambassador’s despatch a full month before, by Constantinople.’ He read aloud the underlined passages:
To the Commander-in-chief of His Majesty’s Land Forces
Horse Guards
London
My Lord ,
I have the honour to report that I accompanied His Imperial Majesty, Autocrat of all the Russias, and His Excellency the Ambassador to the seat of the War at Varna, where by His Majesty’s order Count Woronzov took command on the 29th of August from Adjutant-general Menshikov who had been wounded in one of the Turk sorties. The approach to Varna by His Majesty’s forces was first assayed on June 28, but the Russian avantgardes were met by considerable Ottoman forces, and the siege postponed. The appointment of Count Woronzov was signalized by a sortie made in force during the succeeding night, against the right of the Russian trenches . The Arnauts entered the redoubt sword in hand through the embrasures, but were repulsed, after a determined struggle, by the efforts of a regiment called after His Grace the Duke of Wellington. The 31st was then remarkable for a considerable number of attacks and counterattacks by the besieged and the besiegers, who alternately attacked the flank of their adversary. Towards the close of the day, the Turks mastered some strong ground near the enemy’s right, on which they planted five of their standards, but during the night General Woinoff regained this position, though with great difficulty . A Turkish lunette was carried at the same moment, but it was retaken next morning by a storming party sent for the purpose from the garrison .
Between the 1st and 8th of September two additional redoubts were constructed by the besiegers , and a second parallel was attempted by flying sap, under cover of fresh batteries. These played directly on the guns of the fortress, instead of the more usual, and I might say scientific, ricochet fire .
On the 8th of September, the Emperor Nicholas returned by land from Odessa with reinforcements, sixteen battalions and as many squadrons which, in addition to the guards and sappers, gave an effective force of more than 20,000 men before Varna, exclusive of the corps detached to the southern side of the fortress to