Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/213

 THE APKIL BOMBARDMENT. 181 the theory laying it down that with even so chap. much as one gun in an undisahled state, these ! — batteries ought not to turn silent until after sun- nth"wth set. Their tenacity even exceeded what opinion bythew- enjoined ; for when darkness had fully set in, our dark, people in camp were still hearing the fire of the two 'advanced batteries.'( 14 ) Though constraining me indeed to record them for the sake of our valiant artillerymen, and the country they served, those fights that we have seen undertaken — undertaken one hardly sees why — in two small, forlornly placed batteries, were not, after all, efforts destined, nor even, I may say, at all calculated to govern the course of the siege. IX. I lay no stress at all on the havoc sustained at this period by the principal batteries of the Allies, since it was not so great as to be overpowering, could be always repaired in due time, and did not for a moment coerce them into either any change of their plans, or any relaxation of effort. What kept within bonnds the intensity and the dura- tion of their bombardment, was — not the enemy's tire, but — the limit they knew there must be to what put ' " limits on all their own stores — though immense — of heavy the bom- ° bardment. siege-gun ammunition. With their siege-guns in this bombardment ot tion of siege ... ■. CI ^ U " :l """ u " ten days the Allies are believed to have fired mtion.