Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/157

 AVIIEX ABANDON F.I) i;Y THE Ali.MY. 127 cliangc which had been effected since the landin;^' chap. was the completion of the Central Bastion ; and ' althouoh the lines along the Karabel suburb were Timsiigiit fully equal in their niilitarv value to those which t'l.itiiad •' ^ •' _ there been took in the main town, they had received but ctfoeted ' y _ siuue 111.: little accession of strength since the day of the i.>'"iiM-. landing. The Lattery of the Point had indeed been begun, and preparations had been made for strengthening the position of the ^Nfalakoff Tower; but little had l)een hitherto done in this quartei', ami the Malakoff, on the 25th of Septembei', was a mere naked tower without a glacis, exposed from head to foot, unsupported by the powerful batteries which were destined to think it, and un- covered as yet by the woi-ks which afterwards closed up round its base. There were uo interme- diate entrenchments along the lines of the Kara- bel suburb which connected with one another the four works there begun or established. Those four works afforded but a weak defence to the weak state IP 11 1 • 1 1 of the great intervals ot ground by which they were defences. divided. Upon the whole, it may be said that along all the arc of four miles which encompassed the place on the land side, the part which reached iVom the Artillery Lay to the Central Uastion Nvas the only one which could be regaiileil as tolerably secure. All the rest of the line of defence, in- cluding that occupied by the Flagstaff Bastion, and all the works of the Karabel faubourg, were weak, and could be easily forced. They afforded hardly any cover for infantry, not even lor the reserves; and the gunners at the batteries, havinu