Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/325

 THE 17T1I OF OCTOBEK. 295 CHAPTEE XIII. Seeing now under what conditions the besies-ers chap. . XIII would have to act after giving the twenty days' L_ respite, one may ask how it came to be imagined, by both the French and the English, that the blow they were going to strike would be likely to achieve their end. The Allies trusted much to the power of their sources of ordnance as well as to the quality of their troops ; denoefeitbj the Allies • and, apart from the baneful delays which their plan of attack had involved, it was not an ill-ad- vised measure. The Allies, we saw, hoped to be able to get down the fire of the place to an extent which would enable their assaulting columns to gain the Eedan and the Flagstaff Bastion, without, up to that time, undergoing an overwhelming loss from artillery ; and they trusted that, when once they had thus pierced the enemy's line, their troops would so overmaster any soldiery that could be gathered to meet them in rear of the assaulted ramparts, as to be able to cut into two the whole structure of the Russian defences.