Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/377

 THE 17X11 01- OCTOBER. 3-17 the fate of Sebastopol ; but, in the event of the chap. ])lace holding out for a time, the dominion of the _J 1_ Quarantine Bay could not but be of great value to the Allies. Above all, the undertaking seemed to be not merely feasible, but easy ; for with a leplying power of only 33 pieces, the 58 guns of the liussians — all standing in open-air batteries — were to be under the starboard broadsides of the whole of the French line of battle, and the depth of the water was such that the ships, if so men should choose, could be brought to close quarters with the Fort. In an earlier page we saw that a main ground 10.30 am. for pressing the Admirals to undertake an attack loincideuce with their ships was the hope of its increasing the confusion and terror that might be inflicted upon the garrison by the opening of the fire from the trenches ; and that, accordingly, the onslaught of the fleets had been ordained to begin simulta- neously with the land cannonade, at half-past six in the morning ; but we afterwards had to be told that the hour of the naval attack was postponed, at the instance of Admiral Ilamelin. "We have since been learning that at half-past ten, the land batteries of the French were silenced. After that, there was no room for hoping that the garrison just relieved from the pressure of the batteries on IMount liodolph would be thrown into a state of dismay by a distant cannonade from the ships. But the arrangements for the uaval attack had been made. They were not counter-