Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/216

 186 Tin-: counsels of thk allies. CHAP. ' attack us in flank.* Well, certainly, if we en- ^^^' ' tangle ourselves in a lengthened siege, there ' may come a time when the Russian Comman- ' der will he so largely reinforced as to be able ' to take the offensive, and assail us up there on ' the plateau in a way to imperil our armies. ' But, as yet, we hear nothing of any such rein- ■ forcements ; and, in the mean time, an oppor- ' tunity of encountering such an attack would be the best thing that could happen to us ; for an army, greatly inferior to us in numbers, and defeated last week in a chosen and prepared position, could hardly yet come and assail our forces in the open field without giving us a fair occasion for inflicting upon it a great disaster — a disaster of such a kind as would be likely to bring about the immediate fall of the place. ' But then you, our French friends, say that Prince Mentschikoff may attack us whilst in the act of storming Sebastopol.f Surely this apprehension is a chimaera. We can choose our own moment for the assault : we are not with- out cavaliy : the Prince is distant from us be- tween twenty and thirty miles ; and supposing him to be marching by daylight, his advance ' during many, many hours, would be under the ' tively wary, we may so far guard ourselves ' against the apprehended contingency as to avoid f in tlift Appendix, t Ibid.
 * eyes of our people. If we wish to be superla-
 * Narrative by one of the Fieiicli Generals of Division, given