Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/477

 THE CANNONADE STILL MAINTAINED. 447 tlieir decision; for there were many circumstan- CHAP. XIV ces which concurred to make the Flagstaff Bastion L- a weak point in the line of defence ; but so much the more for that reason he laboured to frustrate the assailants. By means of a change effected in the organisation of the night outposts, he found it possible to inflict much heavier losses than before upon the French working parties, and, indeed, to carry the interruption to such a length as to render the progress of the approaches exceedingly slow ; but also he constructed fresh batteries for the purpose of counteracting the new design of the French in all its successive stages, so ordering liis measures that the nearer they might draw their approaches the more he would be enabled to ply them with fire ; and adhering to his favourite principle, he never ceased to take care that, whenever the moment miglit come for as- saulting the work, any troops employed in the enterprise should be under a storm of mitrail.