Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/222

192 COLONEL YEA'S ATTACK. chap, condition importing that all lie accosted must ! die — it so happened that those he addressed were fatality stricken, one after another, before they could SSSf" 8 ™swer his words. A'Court Fisher made an endeavour to collect the troops, but they proved to be so few in number — scarce exceeding, he thought, 150 (*) — as to be disqualified — until reinforced — for any Order given assault on Scbastopol ; and, in expectation of a " V ' th0 4.' 1 £ u / U ■Engineer time when fresh troops would come up in sup- ' officer.' x L port, he ordered the men to do what we saw done before by the scant remains of the covering party, that is, to get under such cover as could be gained by lying down and ensconcing themselves within the slight hollows that here and there marked the ground on the outer side of the Abattis. In his efforts thus firmly maintained under raging fire, 'the Engineer officer' was aided by the ex- ceeding zeal and valour of Sergeant Landrey, one of his sappers, what to Our few men, lying down on the verge of the expect from ,. ., -. . A.battis, and under a mnmty fare delivered now of fresh ° J troopa. at a range of only some 80 yards, might well enough yearn to be told that supports were at last coming up ; but the actual conditions were such — our ladders having all 'stranded' — that a large despatch of fresh troops pushed forward through storms of mitrail must have hugely aug- mented the sacrifices already made by our people without opening, perhaps after all, any clear, or even dim prospect of seizing the Great Eedan. Be that as it may, no fresh troops could be