Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/225

 THE APRIL BOMBARDMENT. 193 merit, the Flagstaff Bastion was the Work that CHAP. VI. suffered the most.*. — By this time, the Flagstaff Bastion had been state of under a fire of great power during several sue- Bastion, cessive days; and Todleben judged that, to keep it in fighting condition, a more than common effort was needed. There were therefore applied The great effort made to this task the concentrated energies of no less to repair it than 1500 men who toiled all night in the battery, and with so much the more of devotion since they toiled, all the time, under fire.t On the 15 th of April again, the Flagstaff Bas- Peril of the c ° °. Bastion on tion lay stricken under a devastating fire ; and it the seventh J ° day; was only, says Todleben, from the brave emula- tion of all its defenders that this Work — more menaced, he thought, by assault than any other part of the Fortress — maintained its means of defence. + No effort was spared to keep the Work in a condition for answering assault with mitrail.§ The evening of this 15th of April was the one on which our allies opened up by explosion three craters in front of the Flagstaff Bastion ; || and, since this measure visibly offered to aid the ad- vance of infantry, there seemed to be now one more reason for making sure that French columns would be presently assaulting the Work. 1T On the 16th of April, the Flagstaff Bastion was on the ,, - . ei 8 hth dav : once more ' buried ' under a mass of projectiles, and its armament was thrown into a state of utter X Ibid., p. 147. § Ibid., p. 147. VOL. VIII. N
 * Todleben, p. 147. t Ibid., p. 141.
 * Bee post, p. '202. IT Todleben, vol. ii. p. 150.