Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/303

 SIEGE OPERATIONS. 273 to submit a contrary opinion, the question that chap. before had seemed easy became one much harder L_ to answer. We saw the solution of this lasting mystery which Lord Raglan accepted — one im- porting that, if the French soldiery should break by force into the town, they perhaps might be- come uncontrollable — but another explanation has been always preferred by the Eussians. What they have said is, that the energy, the skill, the success of their counter-miners, soon fastened on the minds of the French soldiery a full conviction that the Flagstaff Bastion had been carefully mined, and that the dread thus felt by the men forced its way upon the counsels of their chiefs. VOL. IX