Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/212

182 GENERAL CAMPBELL'S ATTACK. chap, new column with any semblance of power to ' go and attack the Redan. The body of men we saw acting against the Artakoff Battery was not by him known to be anywhere gathered; and of troops acting under his orders there simply were none, except the string of mixed soldiery we saw sheltered under the parapet, — an unorganised gathering of men not either so placed, or so cir- cumstanced in other respects that they could be wielded like a battalion drawn up on open ground by any magic words of command. Nor to these could Lord West really offer the sometimes al- luring temptation of what our people mean by a 'fight'; for the men knew by this time that, if once over the parapet, they would still be divided from their adversaries by a zone of open ground — several hundreds of yards in breadth — which they could not even hope to be crossing except under torrents of grape-shot that needs must shut out every prospect of closing with the distant enemy, or even drawing near to his counterscarp. nis vain Still, when applying his energies to this or that given part of the distended line, Lord West, nobly seconded by his officers no less than by the spirit of the men, proved here and there able to get men out over the parapet ; and he judged that, if this friendly barrier had been levelled be- forehand along a good part of its course, he per- haps would have found himself able to lead out his troops in a body through the gap so laid open, and to execute what at the least might have