Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/174

 144 EXULTING CONFIDENCE OF THE ALLIES. CHAP. VI. Reply of Russian batteries. This re- garded by the be- siegers as weak. The effect like that of a stratagem The Allies lulled into a faith that Bebastopol was ready «o fall. Iledan.* The enemy under this cannonade lost many officers of high distinction, including the valiant Boudistcheff, and a great number of gun- ners ; but also (as in former bombardments) the cruel necessity of having to keep bodies of in- fantry under fire by way of precaution so greatly augmented his losses as to bring up the number of his killed and wounded to no less than 4000.1 The losses of the Allies were confined to only a few score of men.( 5 ) There was a failure of ammunition at one time in some of the enemy's batteries, and his gunners suffered so frightfully under the fire of the be- siegers that in some of the works it was neces- sary to replace them by infantry men whose skill in the working of ordnance was greatly inferior ; but the enemy apparently thought that in spite of these checks he had effectively answered the Allies with the 19,000 shots he delivered in the course of the day. The besiegers on the other hand judged that the garrison had answered but weakly to their mighty bombardment ; and, although there is no ground for saying that the enemy refrained of set purpose from doing his best, the discomfiture he underwent in this strife of guns against guns pro- duced all the effect of a stratagem profoundly contrived. The Allies, French and English alike, were lulled into what at the time was a pleasant belief — a belief that, after having wrought won- ders by the development of his artillery power, Todleben, vol. ii. pp. 363, 364. t Ibid., p. 380.