Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/53

 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 31 with a battalion of Turks and a battery of field- chap. artillery. — — In the harbour, there was an English corvette called the Wasp ; * and (besides a score or two of English soldiers, having duties of some kind which brought them to Balaclava on the day of the battle) there lay in the town some eighty or a hundred English soldiers, who, although in- valided, were not so prostrate as to be unable to handle a musket. So great was the confidence which most of our people reposed in the strength of this inner line of defence, in the quality of all the troops which manned it, and in the prowess of the veteran soldier who commanded the garrison, that the safety of the ground thus covered cost them little or no uneasiness ; and, as a not inexpressive sign of the quiet efficiency with which this part of the defence was made good, I may mention that an officer holding a very high and responsible command, and one, too, which did not at all tend to divert him from this part of the Allied position, was long able to remain unacquainted the '"Wasp' at first had no crew on board. The ' Diamond ' was lying also in the harbour, but she neither had guns nor crew on board, and was in charge, it seems, of a single ship-keeper. Captain Patison, E.N., commanding the 'Simoom,' a troop- ship, was the senior naval officer in the harbour. When he became aware that there was likely to be an attack, he ordered his first lieutenant, Lieutenant Selby, to collect the working parties, and get them on board the 'Wasp,' thereby enabling the corvette, if called upon, to deliver fire from her starboard broadside ; and he also directed that one watch should follov hiin ashore, and take part in the land defence
 * With the exception of a gunner and a few men in charge,