Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/185

 THE APKIL BOMBAKDMENT. 153 and that against all they can reach with their chap. blows. To know how one round-shot disports itself when able to tear through a sand-bag parapet is to have some help towards imagining the con- dition of a battery where ruthless intruders like this from time to time come driving in at the rate of some ten in the minute. Our advanced No. VIII. was the battery des- The'ad- , H. ,, _. .' vanced No tmed to be fought on the 14th by Captain «vra.' Walcott, having Lieutenant Torriano as his sub- altern ; but at the time of Oldershaw's fight on the 13th, it had not been armed. VI. On the evening of the 12th, Captain Oldfield The order (the officer commanding the artillery of the Left captain" -11^- ■ /-ki j i Oldershaw Attack) ordered Captain Oldershaw to work the to engage i the ' ad- No. VII. advanced battery on the morrow. He ' vanced Nu ■ vii. bat- peremptorily forbade the opening of fire until 'tery* on mantlets (if not there already) should be sup- -M-u- plied by the Engineers, and then he added an order which under the existing conditions was one of a very grave kind. He was an able, a gallant officer ; * and perhaps did not mean to do more than make his instruction conform to what, as we saw, had become a ruling idea ; but, be that as it may, he unflinchingly enjoined Sebastopol.
 * He (Captain Oldfield) was killed not long afterwards before