Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/290

 25S COMMENCED EXPEDITION TO KERTl II. chap, strength, and (if quality be considered) much more, thus immensely curtailing, and substan- tially indeed quite annulling, his means of effec- tive resistance to any strong body of troops which might seek to wrest from him the key of the straits by simply assailing in rear his string of seven coast batteries. On the whole, it results that — abounding in anxiety for the defence of the Isthmus, and the great road passing along it which linked him with the main of the army — he reluctantly made up his mind that the seven coast batteries must be left in a state of defencelessness against attacks made in their rear by powerful bodies of troops. He of course did not mean to endure that the batteries should be insultingly seized without resistance by any small body of men put on shore — as in scorn — from the ships ; and accord- ingly, whilst keeping his Hussars at Arghine within a distance of only some 30 miles from the landing-place of Kamish Boroune, he re- tained in the neighbourhood of Kertch four pieces of field-artillery, and a body of some 2500 men (chiefly Fencibles) of whom nearly 1900 could be spared to act as infantry ; * but on the other hand, his adopted plan was to abstain from defending these batteries against an enemy disembarking in strength, and even coast batteries, and other tasks confining them to particular spots. In this body of 1883 men only 133 were regular troops, the rest being ' Fencibles.'
 * More exactly 1883, the rest being employed in serving the