Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/110

 80 THE CIRCASSIAN FORTS HELD BY RUSSIA. chap, aries who long had been steady enough in the !__ practice of humble Czar-worship. ■ It was natural that the change should be slow. Men might long go on dimly imagining that their old faith was sound; but, whether conscious or not of the change coining over their minds, they were plainly dragged far on the road which leads from darkness to light when forced to see, as they did from the shores of the Azof, that their Czar, if, as always, divine, was still for the moment at best an unsuccessful Divinity. In proportion to its disturbing effect on the mind of the humble Don Cossack, or any other poor shoresman, the loss of the Sea of Azof was tormenting of course to his rulers, and all the more, since they knew that its severance from the Czar's dominions was so far definitive that perforce it would have to be borne, until the Invaders at last should choose to grant Eussia a peace. IIL Attack on The forces, both naval and military, which had Soudjak- t Kaie ami opened the Straits of Kertch lay assembled at no Anapa re- commended, great distance from Soudjak-Kale and Anapa, then held by Eussia on the Circassian coast ; and a prompt attack on these strongholds was eagerly counselled by Lyons. Troops dc- First, Lord Raglan, then General Pelissier, ^patched for. .^ ,, ., . tiiepurpose. adopted our admirals project; and, to carry it into effect, a body of three thousand infantry — two-thirds of it French, one-third English — with