Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/397

 PLAN OF ATTACKING THE NORTH SIDE. 371 was conviuced, as we saw, that after the Alma chap. the true policy of the Allies required an imme- '__ diate attack upon the Star Fort. The Allies were not ignorant that the posses- sion of the North Side would at once enable them to cannonade the enemy's shipping.* Nor again did they fall into the error of supposing the Star Fort to be of itself a formidable work.-f- Indeed The objec- • 11 ii'i i'i 1- tions that it may be said that the hindrances which stood in were urgea 11 p 1 1 • 1 against the way of the enterprise were all of such a kind attacking •^ J- the North that they must have been as clearly apparent to side, the minds of general officers whilst planning at Varna as now they were to the eyes of men scan- ning the work with their field-glasses. It is true, as we saw, that towards the north-west of the Star Fort a field-work had lately appeared, which bent round the shoulder of the hill, and in such a direction that two if not three of its guns, at a range of two miles, might bring their fire to bear upon the waters at the mouth of the Belbec ; but the use of the spade and the pickaxe has been so long known in the world, and the crust of the earth has been so frequently used by man as a means post, p. 395. It is difficult for an Englishman to help thinking wistfully of the course things might have been likely to take if, the French claim to precedence being out of the way, the Eng- lish had been on the right. In that case, Lord Raglan and Sir Edmund Lyons would have been operating, as it were, side by side, and the enterprise against the Star Fort would have given a good occasion for showing what can be done by the closely combined action of land and sea forces. t See Sir John Burgoyne's Memorandum, post, p. 395, in which he admits it was 'by no means formidable if insulated.'
 * See the 3d clause of Sir John Burgoyne's Memorandum,