Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/105

 ANOTHER COUNTER-APPROACH. 73 On what caused not only the error of mistak- CHAP. ing a repulse for a victory, but also the ugly ! — scandal of a French commander-in-chief being put, and long kept in the dark by his own trusted officers, a veil was indulgently thrown. When askintz on the 24th for a truce in order Truce for O burying the to bury the dead, General Osten-Sacken preferred dead, his request with exuberant politeness, and ac- companied it by an acknowledgment of the 'exemplary intrepidity' which the French had displayed in the fight. The communication ex- cited much interest, and even some speculation. III. The French did not renew their attack. Con- Reason of . the French vincinsr themselves that, if captured, the beling- for not ° renewing hinsk Kedoubt might be swept by so potent a the attack, fire of artillery as would make it untenable, they resolved, however unwillingly, that they needs must stand by acquiescent whilst the enemy — losing no moments — completed and armed his new Work.* And this bold encroachment effected under TheVoi- ... P hvnia Be- their eyes was only, after all, a beginning of the doubt. counter-approaches with which the Czar's great engineer was minded to try their patience. Seiz- ing ground that lay towards the left front of the newly formed Work, he there, on the night of the 28th of February, began to construct yet an- other one of a similar kind which was called the
 * Kiel, p. 154.