Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/194

 164 HEROIC RESISTANCK OV SEBASTOPOL CHAP, suniiiso bo ill based, it was notliing but the want ^^- of commanders which hampered, for a time, the mechanism of the army, and made the Prince shrink from the hazard of bringing it again into conilict before its defects were repaired.* XVI. It is time to be passing again to the camp of the French and the English ; but 1 hardly could turn away yet from the lines of defence at Sebas- topol unless I might trust that I have suffered full light to come in upon what was there ven- tured and done in the last six days of September. The glory Ft)^ although they all passed away without either ucimigo the event of a battle, or any cannonade or assault of sebas"^ on the part of the Allies, those, nevertheless, were tHrsi-x iast° the days when the heaviest stress was put upon ^" the courage and the devotion of the defenders. From first to last, it is true, the place was de- fended with tenacity, with valour, and with a rare, pliant skill ; but in the later period of the conflict, the strength of the garrison, for the most jiart, was proportioned, or more than proportioned, to its task. In the six days 1 speak of, it M-as Mentscliikoir's conduct is not the one put forward in print hy General Todleben {a7itc, pp. l.'iO, 160) ; but it does not follow that the General would disapprove it, though reasons of a per- sonal kind ini^ht naturally enough prevent him from assigning the want of competent oflicers as the cause of Prince Mentschi- koff's inaction. General Todleben, however, does not, I think, say anything which would contravene the explanation above suggested.
 * I have alrea<ly intimated that tlii.s explanation of Prince