Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/398

 372 PLA.N OF AITACKING THE NOUTH SIDE. CHAP, of sheltering himself whilst engaged in efforts to ^' harm his assailants, that if the Allies were to turn aside from a well-weighed plan of campaign at the sight of a newly-made battery, they would not only disclose a flexibility scarce consistent with the pretensions of aggressive States, but would be conceding to the power of the Defence, as com- pared with the power of the Attack, an ascendant which does not belong to it. Certainly, it was possible that by a gun in the new battery, dis- charged at a range of two miles, a vessel might be struck whilst engaged in bringing stores into the mouth of the Belbec ; but it was not with a notion of being baffled by a contingency of this kind that the venturesome enterprise of the invasion had been planned or begun ; and the Work which thus threatened the entrance of the Belbec was not only open to attack by the land forces of the Allies, but was also so placed that the naval forces of the French and English ships could have taken their part in its capture. Again, it was said that the position which the Eussiaus would have to defend on the North Side was only a mile in extent, and that therefore their main strength might be concentrated with power- ful effect upon a comparatively small space of ground.* It was also argued that, from the mo- ment of the landing, the Russians must have in- ferred that the invaders intended to attack the Severnaya or North Side, and that, therefore, there was no hope of surprising the enemy by au
 * Sir John Burgoyne's Memorandum, j^ost, p. 395.