Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/96

 <;i THE COUNTER-APPROACHES. CHAPTER IV. SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL FROM THE MIDDLE OF FEB- RUARY 1855 TO THE SECOND WEEK OF APRIL. CHAP. IV. Morning of the 22d of February. I. Looking out in the early morning — the morning of the 22d of February — from their works of ' approach ' on Mount Inkerman the French de- scried a new object which excited at first curi- osity, then graver attention, but still, it would seem, did not cause any anxious foreboding of sigiitob- evil. What they saw was a white-looking circlet served by the French, or loop which somehow had come to appear on the ground lying north-west before them.* Portending, as we now so well know, a fresh and mighty development of the enemy's defen- sive resources, and — by consequence — a long, long frustration of all the besieger's fond hopes, this white circlet flung round a knoll on the north- western side of Mount Inkerman did not in- stantly show its full import to even the more skilled observers. rounded.
 * The white line had its angles, but seen from afar appeared