Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/34

 CONDITIONS AFFECTING TIIK BESIEGERS. C HAP. I. which they had placed themselves. Yet, to any such task as that of putting stress on Ssbastopol by, what men in general mean Ime,run ic " when they spy'akV a 'siege,' the Allies were tliei- w.hoUy unequal.- They had been guided into their troubles by accomplished, highly skilled engineers, but of those there were none who at first saw whither their counsels were tending;* and thus it resulted — anomalously — that by great scientific advisers they had been not only led by degrees into what was an ugly predicament, but also into open rebellion against the first precepts of Science. Instead of ap- proaching their object with that huge prepon- derance of numbers — before Vauban's time ten to one — which Science had declared to be needed for the reduction of a fortress, they were them- selves on the contrary outnumbered by tens of thousands ; ( l ) and far from having the power to fold their coils round the place after the manner of normal besiegers, they had confessed themselves unable to invest it at all on the north, whilst even too on the south — their own chosen side of the Roadstead — they were leaving the enemy free to come in and go out as he chose. And whilst thus altogether unable to beleaguer Sebastopol, the Allies were in some sort be- leaguered. Confronting them — and this at close quarters — with the garrison part of his forces now strongly entrenched, the Russian commander The duress they Hiitt'ered. ing-guns, and even give those guns cover, without sliding intc -, ' siege.'
 * See vol. iv. chap. vii. Men thought they could use batter-