Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/184

 ir)t III'ROIG liKSISTANCE OK SKBASTOrOL CHAP, be ill readiness alon<? the uliule line with liis VI • • ■ " j)itiless storm of niitrail, might almost lie down to liis rest with the contentment of one who has made his purpose sure. XII r. wiKitu.e But, so far as concerned the power of the small (jarrisuuiiow . • n ^ ^ • i x. i h.iawasa 'jarrison then occupvin'r Sebastopol to withstand liastily '^ . l^ o t,, , •entrenched a determined assault, Colonel Todleben s exer- ' position ; ' . tions had, after all, only provided that the de- fenders should be enabled to sell tiieir lives dear. The hasty labours bestowed on the lines of de- fence had not, of course, changed an open town into a ' fortified place.' What had been achieved was this : there had been formed ' an entrenched 'position' — an entrenched position, extending four miles along the arc of a half-circle, oiid covering Sebastopol on its land side. Now, although it is true that a fortifietl place may be defended for a time by a garrison vastly inferior in numbers to the besieging force, a merely entrenched position, and especially an en- trenched position lour miles in extent, has ua such attribute; and if it is resolutely attacked by a powerful army, nothing less than another army can defend it. Deriving support from its en- trenchments, the defending force need not, of course, be equal in numbers to its assailants, but it must be really an army, and an army so strong as to be able to sustain a pitched battle with forces attacking it on its prepared ground. To