Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/170

 138 THE APRIL BOMBARDMENT. chap. On the whole, it beforehand seemed plain that VI ' in this artillery conflict the balance of advantage leant strongly against the besieged. III. opening and On Monday the 9th of April, the morning continua- tion of the opened so dimly with heavy mist, storm, and April bom- L J i bardment. ra i R) that each object on which the Allies had been minded to drive their projectiles was thickly obscured, but not the less, soon after daylight they began their designed cannonade ; and the piety of Sebastopol gave them a little time of immunity from hostile shot and shell ; for the sacred festivities and greetings commenced on the previous day — the Easter Sunday of the Greek Church — were still — on the Easter Mon- day — so strangely engrossing as to cause a good deal of delay, and in almost every bastion some twenty or twenty-five minutes were suffered to pass before their batteries opened. At the end of that time, the garrison began to make answer, but still — for the reason we gave — to fire with a rigid economy of warlike munitions ; and this very unequal interchange of artillery missiles had not gone on many hours, when already, as may well be supposed, the richly supplied be- siegers were seen to be having the mastery. All day, the besiegers went on with their great cannonade, and, even when darkness came, they did not relapse into silence, but plied the defences at night with a powerful vertical fire.