Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/458

 4 28 THE CANNONADE OF CHAP, state to which the Et,'(hui hud been brou-iht ou XIII JL L_ the afternoon of this 17th of October was a singu- larly exact fulfihnent of Burgoyne's design, i'or, although, as auxiliary and collateral measures, our chief engineer had undertaken the battering of the riagstaff Bastion, and the battering of the jNIalakoff as well as of other defences, yet the main puii)Ose of what Burgoyne had planned to achieve by Ibrce of siege-guns was to drive such a chasm of havoc into the enemy's line of defence on the ridge where stood the Piedan as would open, through ruins of earthworks and silenced batteries, a not impracticable roadway for the Englisli columns of assault. This being what ]kirgoyne had undertaken to do, it lesulted that — with some aid from that gift of fortune which v/rought the explosion of the Eussian magazine — he was able to fulfil his engagement. At a few minutes after three o'clock in the afternoon, the Eedan luy before him in that very state to which he had sought to reduce it. wiiynot But we liave to remember that the plan which theAiiies. aimed at breaking in by the Karabel faubourg was a part only of the ^■hole design, and that whenever the English should be assaulting the Redan, the French w'ere to be assaulting the Flag- staff Bastion. According to the understanding between the French and the English Head- (luarters, the one assault was not to be going on without the other ; and it seems to have been — not so much stated in terms, but — rather taken ini' granted that the silencing, for the dav, of the