Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/176

 144 TIIK AI'IML HOMBAliDMKNT. CHAP. VI. The angry impatience thus caused. of rain brought the ground to a state which baffled the power of even large bodies of men applying their strength to the drag - ropes ; * whilst also in the interposed parapet of the 2d Parallel there existed a physical barrier which would have to be eluded or conquered before any guns could be lodged in the advanced bat- teries. Some advised the course afterwards fol- lowed ; but the idea at Headquarters was that the guns — they were 32-pounders — might each, one after the other, be forced up and over this obstacle by using the machine called a 'gin.' But, even to reach the foot of the interposed parapet was not for some time found practic- able. On the night of the 8th, on the night of the 9th, and again on the night of the 10th, the stubbornness of physical obstacles defeated the efforts of all who successively tried hard to conquer them ; and accordingly, all day on the 9th, all day on the 10th, all day on the 11th, the Left Attack was still seen to be hav- ing no siege-guns in action except those which plied their fire from the line of the good old 1st Parallel. There resulted, as may well be supposed, a great deal of angry impatience ; and this, it would seem, was most felt by the Eoyal Artil- lery, since theirs was the branch of our service least as to one night) by the fact that they baffled so able, so determined a man as Captain — now Lieutenant- General — Henry. With respect to his services and Lord Raglan's warm appreciation of them, see post, sec. viii.
 * That these difficulties were very formidable is shown (at