Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/405

 PLAN OF THE FLA.NK MARCH. 379 her in peace-time) England had neglected; and chap. it happened that in the case of Sebastopol, there had been a like neglect on the part of the French War Office. Neither France nor England were authoritatively informed of the state of the laud defences of Sebastopol. In the year 1835, Colonel Macintosh had given i.ycoionei to the world an account of the then state of the land defences of the place ; and he had brought to bear upon this task not only a sufficing care and labour, but also so much sagacity, and so sound a knowledge of the military art, that to this hour it is curious to see how the destined strife for the Malakoff had been foreshadowed in a book which at the opening of the war was almost twenty years old.* "When the war began to impend. General Macintosh imparted further expositions of the subject to the authorities at the Horse Guards ; and it is now certain that the body of information and suggestive comment which he supplied would have been a wholesome study for the Allies ; for, although it would have Macintosh, in a memorandum addressed to our ambassador at Constantinople, wrote : ' It appears that the works intended ' to enclose the town on this side (it is now quite open) are ' meant to consist in a strong enceinte of revetted bastions. ' They are now laid out, and quarries opened to carry them ' on. . . . The new works are to extend as nearlj- as pos- ' sible in the direction e, e, e, and will completely cover the ' town and harbour. At present the inner harbour is com- ' manded from the height d.' By looking at the accompanying copy of the sketch which Colonel Macintosh sent with his memorandum of 1834, it will be seen that the ground there designated as ' the height d ' is the site of the Malakoff.
 * On the 16th of December 1834, General (then Colonel)