Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/182

 152 HEROIC RESISTANCE OF SEBASTOPOL CHAP. Central Bastion iiothing was done; but from the ^^- Central Bastion to the Dngstaff Battery, and thence down to the bottom of the groat ravine, and tlioncc up to the lledan, and from the Bedan to the Alalakoff, and iVom the Malakojf to the Little Eedan, and theme home to the I'.attery of the Point, the defenei'S received great accessions of strength. The works already constructed were extended and improved ; those remaining un- finished were completed ; the long and hitherto empty spaces which divided them one from the other were studded in some places with powerful batteries, in others, were seamed with entrench- ments intended for covering infantry ; and ali'eady, the armament of almost the whole line of deience was beginning to undergo change ; for the lighter artillery, which had been lying as a snare for the Allies (by making them imagine themselves the stronger in cannonading power), was now giving place to great guns l)ronght up from the shijis. It was at the jSlalakoff, and the ground which tlanked it on either side, that the grcntest wonders were wrought. Admiral Istomin, who there com- manded, knew that the post was vital ; but also he had been frankly told by Korniloff that it was weak. lie had toiled with a ceaseless care, look- ing close into things of detail with his own eyes and guiding the labours of the multitude which jiad swarmed night and day round the work. That simple white tower, the Malakoff, now famous in history, was fast losing its height from the ground, for already the summit of the knoll