Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/289

 COMMENCED EXPEDITION TO KEKTCH. 257 Approaching without toil or trouble under the CHAP. wing of supreme naval power, and gliding along off a coast-line which offered several fit landing- ^V^fore places, the troops of the Allies could make feints, Mm ' or commence real attacks at their pleasure. One excellent landing-place on the beach, not far dis- tant from Theodosia, invited the Allies to make an attack on the isthmus. Another no less convenient on the beach of Kamish Boroune, attracted them towards what, we know, was their real object ; for it offered a footing on shore at a distance of only four miles from the westernmost of the seven coast batteries. Of course under these conditions, the defence of the Peninsula was embarrassed by conflicting exigencies. Baron Wrangel must have eagerly yearned to secure, if he could, the great object for which he was there, and accordingly to de- fend the coast batteries which kept the straits closed ; but then also and on ground so far west as to be many miles distant from the centre of such operations, he yet more anxiously wished, and indeed had been specially ordered by his Commander-in-Chief, to defend the Arabat Isth- mus, and the great road passing along it which gave him his means of communication with the main of the Russian army. Regarding this last part of his task as one of ms dispo^ great moment, he suffered his posts on the Isth- mus to absorb three-fifths of his limited infantry based upon General Todleben's expositions, vol. ii. p. 264 et seq., and Appendix, 415 et seq. VOL. VIII. R