Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/456

 426 THE CANNONADE OF CHAP, Y T T r ■"

the English; and the cheering was taken for proof that the besiegers had comprehended the gift which the fortune of war had brought them, and were coming to lay hands on their prize.

The cheering died out; but narrators have said that, notwithstanding the thunder of the artillery war still waging elsewhere between Sebastopol and its assailants both by sea and by land, the failure of sound issuing from the Eedan added strangely to the sense of desolation which the sight of its ruins occasioned. From a work where, for hours, great batteries had been pealing, where words of command and the shouts of men toiling under fire had been all day resounding, there was nothing now to be heard except the discharge, at long intervals, of a single cannon, and the groans and entreaties of wounded men, ho lay praying, and praying for water. There were Eussians so steadfast in their obedi- ence to sense of warlike duty that, in the face of the ruin which surrounded them, they made an attempt to get some guns in a condition for service; but what resulted was, that out of the 22 pieces which luul armed the work, 2 only remained in battery, aiul I hose were manned by but 5 gunners.* Nor was it oidy Ity the number (jf men killed or disabled, and the all but total ruin of both the work and its batteries, that the Redan was brought into danger. A significant indication of despair yet reniains to be given. The troops
 * Tudlebeu.