Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/48

 16 HIS COUNTERMINES. CHAP, in some sort the cares of a people besieged; L for too often the morning disclosed a small bit of what, if more lengthy, might almost have been called a ' counter parallel '; and these ' lodg- ' merits ' — so Todleben called them — from which the harassed Allies could be either assailed or inspected, soon became beyond measure oppres- sive. It was on the French — not the English (whose ' approaches ' had been less closely pressed) — that the ' lodgments ' especially frowned* The besiegers could resent these aggressions, could assail a lodgment in force, and perhaps drive out of its precincts the enemy's troops; but, such attacks being foreseen, and therefore of course counter-planned by gunners kept on the watch, they used to involve heavy loss, iiisag- When speaking of Todleben's measures for Muster- simply resisting attack, I of course included the countermines by which he found means to arrest the subterranean advance of the French ; but the genius of this man in war was essentially ag- gressive ; and, far from being content with the strictly defensive results attained by his under- ground warfare, he besides strove to make it the means of assailing the French, in their siege- works ; and thus — taking, as it were, the offen- sive in regions below — he kept his foes under dread of the mighty volcano lie, some day, might bid to break out from the ground lying under their feet. The explosion he effected on the 9th bwo only menaced the English. mines.
 * Out of 34 'lodgments' which at one time were counted,