Page:The battle of the channel tunnel and Dover Castle and forts.djvu/8

2 the particular porthole which he was commanded to watch; and with a string attached to the trigger of it: so that the moment the head of a Garibaldian was seen looking out from it, however cautiously in the early dawn, the string was pulled; and a rifle ball sped its projected course, and probably several others at the same moment, into that porthole: and he further told me, that there was scarcely a single morning on which he did not see the bodies of several soldiers laid out upon the ramparts, who had been so picked off during that morning.

It is, therefore, manifest, that, the wires being in the hands of the French, and the Telegraph boy with a pistol held at his head, a body of the enemy, though previously undeclared, could during a night obtain possession of this mouth also of the Tunnel; so as to prevent the possibility of its being blown up by the British, or the mine being even charged: while a body of French Sappers and Riflemen, with their gabions, spades and rifles, could be thrown out; and, before daylight, be in similar command over every embrasure and porthole of Dover Castle and Fort, or of any other various Forts that might be made instead of them: and then a column of French Regiments, brought ready packed in trains by surprise from the interior of France, would be debouching from the Tunnel: so that, before 10,000 British Troops could arrive, there would be 20,000 French Troops in command of the heights around Dover, and the Telegraph at work bringing up 100,000 more on the Line, and despatching the inevitable expedition from Cherbourg!

To this a Railway or Channel Tunnel Enthusiast may perhaps answer confidently "Oh! The sides of the Tunnel will be mined: and there will be underground wires, over which the French could not possibly get command, leading to a Magazine!! So that settles the question!!!"

But the simple answer to this Enthusiast's theory is, that no Magazine or charge could with safety be so placed permanently in a mine within distance of the vibration caused by a passing train; very much less by the shock of one running into a truck of coals. And even if a loose charge might bear some vibration, yet even slight vibration oft repeated would gradually consolidate it! And, again, even if the mine were placed at only a quarter of the distance of the extreme range of such vibration, it would be very much too far off to produce the necessary effect; namely, to blow one hole to connect the Tunnel with the Deep