Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/219

 THE APRIL BOMBARDMENT. 187 And, because he well knew that his efforts in chap. VI that first direction might, all of them, fail, he was forced, as we have seen — and this at a dire cost whtch the of life — to keep himself in absolute readiness for gebastopoi the climax in that case assumed to be certain, involved, and close at hand. Towards maintaining that terrible ' readiness throughout the ten days' bombardment, the enemy, it is certain enough, did all that well could be compassed by skill of the highest order, by vast unremitting energy, and by resolute sacri- fices of life exacted under trying conditions ; bu l did he prove able to achieve the first part of his task, and prevent the besieger's artillery from opening through the defences a practicable path for assault ? To see our way towards an answer, we need not be taking account of the havoc from time to time wrought on the enemy's other defences, but must look to those Works which more closely protected the life of his Fortress by blocking the paths for assaulting it. On the side of the Faubourg, those Works were the Malakoff Tower itself and the counter-ap- proaches protecting it. On the side of Sebastopol Town, the ' Flagstaff 1 ' and the ' Central ' Bastions with their closely ad- jacent auxiliaries. Between the two ' fronts for attack ' which thus offered themselves to bombardment on both the east and the west, there stood ranged an extended and strongly armed line of ramparts which in-