Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/330

 300 THE CANNONADE OF CHAP. NotwithstaiifliiKf that the intervention of the XIII • _. Allied navy had been suddenly post])oiicd to a The time later hour, the moment appointed for the openinfr fixed for the, ' '- '- , La opening of of tlic land cannonade remained unaltered. At the land cannonade, half-past six in the morning of the 17th of Octo- ber, three shells were to be discharged from one of the French batteries, and then forthwith the Allies wei'c to open fire along the whole line of their works. The dawn of The signal had not yet been given, when the breaking grey of the morning enabled the Russians to see that the Allies, in the night-time, had cut their embrasures, and that seams of earth hitherto blank had all at once put on the look — significant of man and his purpose — that is given by guns seen in battery. Here and there, as this change Opening of was descricd, a Eussian battery opened fire. the fire. "^ ^ More followed. Some French guns began to make answer. There M'as more and more light. A body of French tirailleurs with a support pushed forvi'ard towards the enemy's lines. Se- bastopol beat to arms. The three appointed signal shells sprang out from the lines on Mount Rodolph. In a minute, some English guns opened ; and presently, along their whole line of batteries, and along all the enemy's works, from the Central to the Flagstaff Bastion, and thence across to the Ecdan, and thence on again to the Malakoff, there pealed a sustained cannon- ade. Then and quickly again, and from time to time, this sustained cannonade was out-thundered