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 THE 17TH OF OCTOBKI!. 307 garrison so organised, and so highly instructed in chap. all their duties, as to warrant him in relying upon their exact performance of orders, he would pro- bably have thought it his duty to remain, for the most part, at the central and commanding spot which he had chosen as his dwelling: for there, he would have been most readily found ; there, better than at the ramparts, he would have been able to understand the general state of the con- flict ; there, with the greatest despatch, he might have pushed forward his reserves to the endan- gered post ; there, most quickly, he would have been able to learn where his presence was needed. But the forces defending Sebastopol were not of such a kind as to warrant Korniloff in taking this strictly military view of the position in which events had placed him. On the contrary — and that he knew — it was the collapse of the military structure which had put upon him this great charge ; and a true instinct told him that, as the hope of defending Sebastopol against a determined attack had had little to rest on at first save that spirit of enthusiastic devotion with which he had inspired his people, both seamen and soldiers, so, although the defence of the place was no longer a task of such utterly overwhelming difficulty as to need being faced in a spirit of romantic desper- ation, it still must depend for success upon his power of exalting and sustaining men's minds. Therefore, overruling the numberless advisers who strove to move him from his decision, he judged it his duty to be visiting the lines of defence, to