Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/174

 1 I t HEROIC RESISTAXCE OF SEBASTOPOL CM A.', countiyiiieii tli(> heliefs and (he afrections which VI , I are the fouiulatiou of patriotism; and they liad, jnost of theni, obeyed some orders connected with the service of the State; but now, for the first time, they knew the sacred emotion which kindles in the bosoms of men when, coming to toil or to tiglit for the land of their bii'th, they come of their free accord.* Long held in subjection to a military system which had never ceased to be fiercely and cruelly obtruded upon theiu until there came this time of danger, they now had to face by themselves a task thought too hard for the army. Therefore, if they could not claim the birthright belonging to men ia free States, at least they had now cast upon (hem the iirst and the proudest of the burthens which freedom imposes, for they stood defendir.g their countiy against foreign invasion. They were worthy of their charge. He who guided their energies at the time, and afterwards recorded in history the things they had done, breaks loose from his engagement to adhere to dry soldierly language, and declares that their devotion to their country's cause was sublime in its strength. Yet this zeal, all the time, was under wise rule, and taking its (ami practically also, I imagine, the dockyard lal)ourers) were acting under orders ; hut the accounts make it evident that, t.ik- ing the whole movement together — the movement of soldiers, sailors working on shore, other lahourers, private citizens, women, and children — it was, in a sense, sjiontancous ; and that the liand of authority, though used to give direction to the energies of the people, was not needed for the purpose of compulsion.
 * Of conr.se, the soldiers ami .sailors compo.sing the garrison