court-yard, whose walls are pierced for musketry.  Four guns of indifferent quality are here mounted, commanding the approaches on either side, while three guard-houses, each capable of holding two or three companies, have been built on the most elevated positions, flanking the approach from the NW.  The garrison consisted of two battalions commanded by a Wallack colonel, who might have passed but for his fez for an officer in the Russian service, so much did he resemble one of that nation in physiognomy.  He appeared to be an active and intelligent officer, and had, I heard, rendered good service during the Eastern war.  The appearance of the valley that night was strange and picturesque.  Hundreds of fires stretched far up the sides of the cradle of hills in which our bivouac was formed, while a regular line of light marked the chain of outposts which crowned the surrounding heights.  Head-quarters might be recognised by a large paper lantern suspended on a high stick close to the camp-fire, around which lay Osman Pacha, one of his staff, the Affghan Dervish, and myself, all sleeping quite as comfortably as though we had never known a bed.  Trumpets sounded at 5 A.M. for a start; and, having ascended to the fort, we found the sun struggling for the mastery with the clouds on the tops of the adjacent hills.  The army was now in full motion; the regular infantry defiled in something like order down the narrow path, which had been imperceptible to us on the preceding evening.  The Bashi Bazouks, on the other hand, might be seen streaming down the hill-side, jumping, rolling, and tumbling in strange confusion.  Having inspected the fort we joined in with these, and rode down a descent, which would have been impracticable for any save the sure-footed iron-plated horses of the East.  After traversing the valley for some miles, the rugged line of Piwa closed in upon us on the left, and a black impenetrable mountain seemed to bar our farther progress.  After three quarters of an hour’s ascent we were glad to halt.  Clambering to a grassy knoll, we made a frugal meal of the hardest of biscuit soaked in muddy water, the only food, by the way, which the troops tasted from the time of leaving Gasko until their return.  These biscuits are manufactured at Constantinople, and are so hard as to be uneatable unless soaked; they, however, form a good substitute for bread, which is seldom to be procured.  But we must not linger too long, for already the sun is high in the heavens.  On, on, once more, brave little horses and unflinching men; your labours will soon be rewarded:  and thus they toiled on, until, with sobbing flanks and perspiring brows, the highest requisite point was reached.  Stretching away to our right front was a grassy glade, looking like velvet after the stony wilderness we had just left:  a pine wood on the left gave it all the appearance of an English park, which was only dispelled by the extraordinary sight which now met the eye.  Behind a dip in the ground were collected a considerable