Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/243

 THE ATTACKS ON THE REDAN. 213 from no fault of either— General d'Autemarre chap. vir. first, and then the French Commander-in-Chief, proved unable to seize their occasion by reinforc- ing the victors. Not interposing again, Fortune thenceforth abandoned the Allies to what was the natural consequence of Pedissier's fatal resolve. Except in that one chosen quarter where For- tune had seemed — for a while — to take part, there was never from the first to the last any trust- worthy basis for hope that either the French or the English could even so much as begin an as- sault on the enemy's works. The French troops confronting defences from the Battery of the Point to the eastern face of the Malakoff, and the English on their part confronting the batteries of the Great Redan, gave themselves with unsparing devotion and at large cost of life and limb to their several tasks ; but, encumbered with ladders, and striving to traverse long distances under fire of great might from the ramparts, they were always so rudely mown down long before coming up to the counterscarps as to have no means at all left them for carrying the defences by storm. With respect to Pelissier's failure, the comment Todieben's of Todleben is that he attempted what (after the repairs effected at night) was virtually imprac- ticable, and omitted to do what was perfectly feasible — that is, to attack the town front.* On the efforts our people directed against the Redan, the published comment of Todleben is to
 * Todleben, vol. il. pp. 381, 382.