Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/112

 80 THE KAMTCHATKA LUNETTE. CHAP. IV. Advice of Bizot to Canrobert, declined. Night of the 10th of March, TodlehcTi establishing a Work on the Mame- Ion. Sight greet- ing the French on the morning of the 11th. The Kanit- chatka Lunette. Delib'ra- tions of the French In face of this new appari- tion. By that time, the jointly planned Works of the French and the English — the ' King ' and the 'Artilleur' batteries — were closely approaching completion, and Bizot, the commander of the French engineers, proposed to General Canrobert that on the following night the Mamelon should be seized by his troops.* General Canrobert met the proposal by a reason of great scope and gravity, which shall be after- wards stated, and brought himself to resolve that he would not hazard the step.t On the night of that very same day, the enemy passed into action. Colonel Todleben at last gave reality to what from the time of his planning the two White Redoubts, had been his ulterior pur- pose, and prepared a new, unwelcome spectacle for those of our baffled allies who held the Vic- toria Ridge.J Looking towards the north-west on the morning of the 11th of March, they saw that during the night, their great adversary had been fastening on the Mamelon, and that there, with the rudiments of a Work plainly meant to defend it he already had saddled the Ridge.§ Though as yet of course only inchoate, this new barrier — the Kamtchatka Lunette — lay directly across the one path by which the French could advance against the Malakoff front, and they knew that they must needs overcome the inter- posed obstacle, if they meant to go on with the siege in accordance with their last ordained plan. t Todleben, vol. ii. p. 46 et seq. § Niel, p. 167.
 * Niel, p. 168. t Ibid., p. 169.