Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/77

 QUESTIONS RAISED. 45 XIII. Since vast efforts during this period had on Questions ° f raised by both sides been made without bein" brought to scientific critics. the test of a great and determined attack by either the Allies or the Eussians, there of course was left open a field for any critic inclined to speak in the potential mood, saying — not what happened in fact, but — what in his judgment might well have been expected to happen, if the measure he approved had been tried. Some not only judged, as we have seen, that a determined assault of the Flagstaff Bastion must needs have carried the Work, but also declared it certain that the fall of the Bastion must have rendered altogether impossible a continued de- fence of Sebastopol ; whilst others maintained that the Eussians by a powerful sortie might have brought the besiegers to ruin. The two creeds at first glance might seem to be antag- onistic, because he who clung to the one hap- pened often, if not almost always, to run down the other, yet they did not in reality clash ; for possibly either expedient, if ventured with bold- ness and skill, might have served to achieve its full purpose ; so that victory under this aspect would be said to have awaited the bidding of him who might be the assailant — of him who, whether Eussian or French, should prove himself the first of the two to strike a determined blow. If this last conclusion were sound, we might say of the besieger and the besieged that during several months, each lay at the mercy of each.