Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/273

 THE OPENING OF THE SIEGE. 243 ground far in front of liis works, as to liinder tlic CHAP. Allies in any attempt to establish batteries at a. moderate distance from the place, and prevent their isngineers from obtaining that minnte know- ledge of the ground which they wanted for the ])lanning of their W'orks. We shall see that the repression of this encroaching hardihood on the part of the enemy was the first in that series of measures now devised by the invaders which constituted their plan of attack. The part of the enemy's Sebastopol defences TheSei.as- which offered to his assailants the obvious ' fi'ont '°for attack. ' for attack ' was that slightly curved belt, which included the Flagstaff Bastion, the Redan, and the Malakoff Tower. This last work, or rather llie ground on which it stood, had been pronounced by Sir John Burgoyne upon first surveying the ground to be the key of Sebastopol ; o,nd none indeed could well doubt that the capture of the jMalakoff would carry with it the conquest of the other defences ; for it took in reverse all the works on the eastern side of the Man-of-war Harbour, and its position on a high, commanding knoll seemed to offer to him who might once be there lodged good means of repelling assailants. I)ut the Malakoff was not * the key ' in such sense as to import that it was the only key of Sebasto- ]wl ; and it is the opinion of General de Todle- bcn that — for reasons not altogether dependent upon the mere scope of fii'e from each site — the capture of any one of the three works — the Mala- koff, the Eedan, or the Flagstaff Bastion — must