Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/150

 120 HEIIOIC IJKSISTANCE OF SEBASTOPOL CHAP, along the skirts of the forest to the Mackenzie ' Heights, and afterwards descending southward into the valley of the Tchernaya. All day, the inarch was seen going on; and before evening, the heights where the English had first been descried were observed to be alive with dark- coated troops moving on in Ihe same line of march which the scarlet battalions had taken. ; The danger The import of tliis movement could hardly be 8iiiftin,!,' doubtful. It mu!^t mean that the Allies were Noriii suifi abandoning the valley oi the Belbcc with design totheSoulli. , 7, 1 / • 1-1 1 f 1 to attack Sebastopol on its south side. It lot- lowed that the Severnaya, which before had been regarded as doomed, was now safe, and that the danger had, all at once, shifted from the north to the south of the place. III. Scantiness Wc saw that ou tlic soutli, the now threatened then ready' sidc, the seaiucn were commanded by Admiral tor the liefence of Nacliimoff. Of these, for the moment, there were the Soutli nidts: but lew; lor out of the battalions already with- drawn from the ships no less than eleven were on the North Side, and of land forces there were none except the militia battalions. Nachimofif was a brave, devoted man; but the courage he now evinced was of that forlorn sort which con- .vachiinons sists wltli blank despair. By cutting apertures in the ships' sides — to be filled up until the last moment by stoppers — he strove to ensure to him-