Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/396

 370 PLAN OF ATTACKING THE NORTH SIDE. CHAP, the defenders, he says, notwithstanding all they ^' had done, and notwithstanding their heroic re- in the solves, was nothing less than desperate ; * and he TodTeb^n ; declares that the complete success of the expected attack by the Allies would have been inevitable.f He adds — and there were reasons which gave great importance to that part of the question — that their success must have been speedy. J These conclusions he of course founds on his own com- plete knowledge of the defences as seen from within ; and it would not of necessity follow that the weakness of which he was cognisant would be visible to the Allies. But, then, General de Todleben goes further. Supposing the Allies to have made full use of even those restricted means of observation they had, he says they must needs have learnt that the attack was feasible. § And, lest it be said that this, after all, was only the conclusion of an Engineer officer standing on the sea-cliff, and thence undertaking to say how far the defences could be judged of from the ships, it must be repeated that the conclusion to which General de Todleben says the Allies ought to have come was the very same as that to which Lord in that of Kaglan and Sir Edmund Lyons did come in fact. lanami'Sii Sir Edmuud, as commanding the in-shore squad- ron, would have been called upon to take a great ])&vt in any attack carried on along the coast, and therefore his judgment was that of a man prepar- ing to act upon it. He, no less than Lord Eaglaa • Todelbei), 'Defense de Seliastopol,' vol. i. j). 30. t Ibi'l. p. 233. t Ibid. p. 232. § Ibid. p. 239. E. Lyons.