Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/318

 288 THE GARRISON REINFORCED CHAP. XII. FITccts of the respite granted to Bcbastopol. tliG Englisli were insufficient. The positions of their Attacks did not give liim the kind of op- portunity which he saw on the crest of Mount liodolph ; and apparently lie underrated the liarm that miglit be done to his defences by guns thirteen liundred yards off. At all events, he could not or did not provide for the over- whelming of Burgoyne's threatened batteries by a mightier power of ordnance. In order to secure full advantage from the aid that can be given by sharpshooters and mus- ketry-men in a conflict of the kind now impend- ing, care was taken to provide for them rifle-pits and other apt means of shelter. But if, as we now must have seen, the resist- ance which Todleben planned was mainly of that active sort which consists in assailing the assail- ant, he did not at all, for that reason, neglect the use of expedients more strictly defensive in kind. Thus, as soon as he could see that the bending line of the enemy's works was threatening any of his batteries v,'ith an enfilade fire, he liastened, at great cost of labour, to give them the shelter of ' traverses.'" In general, he used at this time to throw up only one traverse to stand between two pairs of guns. And now there came fit occasions for striving to restore to the troops the moral strength lost on the Alma. AVlien, either from recent defeat, or from any other more permanent cause, an army is wanting in that self-confidence and that sense of relative strength which are principal sources of