Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/39

 PART TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 7 work, the French with great diligence resorted to cha p the expedient of mining. J The besiegers by this time had learnt, yet Extension . towards were day by day learning more thoroughly, that their left — because each opposite bastion was so placed work A •*■. carried on and so armed for duty towards its neighbour bythe J m ° French. as to be effectively subserving the principle of ' mutual support ' — they must choose a wider 'front for attack' than at first appeared to be necessary; and the French by degrees got to see that their own special task (as distinguished from that of our people) must be made to include a great extension of siege-work towards their left. They therefore not only made ready to deal with the ' Central ' as well as the ' Flagstaff ' Bastion, but became step by step the besiegers of all the Sebastopol front from the line of the Woronzoff Road to the edge of the Quarantine Bay. The French also very well understood that, The part because the Flagstaff Bastion drew support from this time the Barrack Battery and the Great Eedan, they English in . the work of would need once again some such aid on their the siege, right as Lord Eaglan had been able to give them on the day of the first bombardment ; but for the siege-like co-operation thus wanted they looked, as before, to the English, and our people, with small and decreasing resources, and difficult ground before them, were unable to execute earth-works upon any scale matching the great- ness of Todleben's new creations. To maintain, to improve, and a little advance their approaches, to confront now and then with new batteries an