Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/223

 THE COUNSELS OF THE ALLIi:?^. 103 inaxiin rests upon the assumption that the chap. .VII. victor will be prompt to Lay hold of the prize which the fortune of battle has offered him ; and we shall be forfeiting what we won at some cost on the heights of the Alma if we not only allow the place three weeks of lespite, but suffer it, all this time, to be in free communication with the roads by which troops and supplies can be brought to its succour. ' But if time is thus so well fitted to enable the enemy to recover from his weakness in point of numbers, and from the stress of a great defeat, much more is it favourable to liim in enabling him to strengthen his works of defence. You say that we too can work ; but in labour of this kind how can we compete with the enemy ? We have at our disposal the few weary and too often sickly men whom we can tell off for fatigue duty from the already diminished strength of our regiments. The enemy has thousands of strong, healthy sailors, he has liands of dock-labourers, all well supplied with food, clothing, and shelter. In point of tools, engines, timber, and other materials, and even in point of great guns, we must not compare our resources with those of an enemy who has close under his hand all that can be furnished by an arsenal, by a dockyard, by a town, by a whole fleet renouncing the sea. The time we shall take to put twenty |)ieces in liattery will enable the enemy to confront us with forty ; and with works better fitted for covering both VOL. IV. N