Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/44

 12 todleben's opinion. chap. He closed the gorge of the Little Redan, and 1 of the Malakoff, and afterwards that of the Flagstaff Bastion. (*) To make sure, if he could, that in the event of their carrying the Flagstaff Bastion, the French should there meet destruction, he, by means of conductors laid down underground, connected the powder - magazine of the Work with a peaceful spot answering his purpose in one of the Sebastopol churches ; * and — not forgetting our people — he took like precautions for arresting the triumph of Englishmen who, after storming their way through all the four- fold defences of the Great Redan, might find themselves alive in its precincts, t As regards the French mining operations, Colonel Todleben met them by countermines in a way we shall presently learn. By his By all the works thus accomplished did the defensive great engineer make his fortress secure against measures, .. . ., did lie make any attack of such kind as — with even the secure? strength they then had — the Allies, if they chose, might attempt ? He himself did not so believe. If trusting that everywhere else he as yet might defy the assailants, he still confessed to himself that he His opinion, had a weak point in his armour which could not by art be made good. He knew indeed that the troops defending his Flagstaff Bastion might be supported by such strong appliances as would enable them, if they chose, to ' die hard ' ; and
 * Todleben, p. 503. t Ibid.