Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/241

 P^LISSIEK. 211 never were able to close on the Russian defences, chap. vii except when a brief inadvertence enabled the ! battalion of Chasseurs, with besides the 80 French Engineers, to evade the enemy's cannon, and that those little bodies of men — far from meeting any ' bayonet-points ' — overcame with great ease the spiritless resistance attempted, established themselves in the fortress, and there, although unsupported, long held their ground against numbers.* XXI. When endeavouring to account for his discom- paissier's fiture, Pclissier laid a great stress on the several tkm£" a mishaps of the early morning which had prevented his three great attacks from taking effect simul- taneously, and cast blame on the two commanders — General Mayran and General Brunet — who both had been killed in the action. It is true perhaps that the accidents assigned by Pelissier gave the enemy a little advantage by interposing some time between the onset of Mayran and those of Brunet and d'Autemarre ; but the all-governing The real cause of the repulse sustained by the Allies was hisfaUura that wild change of purpose of the preceding- evening which enabled the garrison to confront the besiegers at dawn with the whole of the vast fiction was suppressed by the Russians themselves, or not at all events suffered to have any place in the great official account which recorded their defence of Sebastopol.
 * It i3 right to say that in time Prince Gortohakoff's curious