Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/98

 68 OPERATIONS IN THE SEA -OF AZOF. chap, to be followed by corresponding action, was right ! and becoming; but the sequel of his warlike re- sponse seems beyond measure strange. Though he did not recall the defiance, Prince Lobanoff- Rostoffsky ' not choosing to expose his troops to ' useless losses, withdrew them to a distance of ' five versts from the town : ' * thus leaving the unarmed inhabitants to face the dangers created by him who had rejected the summons, and to see a chief follow up his proud words of defiance by marching off the whole garrison to a place of safety ! It may well have been fitting to refuse the de- manded surrender, or — under a contrary view — to withdraw the troops without fighting ; but how the man could — with honour — adopt both the courses of action, and leave unarmed people to suffer for all his vainglorious words, I have not been able to see. By shelling a part of Genitchi, the squadrons opened a way through the Straits for the boats sent in under Mackenzie. The lieutenant and his men soon pushed through to the place of imagined safety which the fugitive vessels had reached, and set lire to them all (they were 73 in number) as well as to the great stores of corn there collected by the Russian Government. The boats had returned to the ships, when men saw that other, though more distant, vessels were within reach, and that — turned by a change of wind — the fire was losing its hold on the range of the enemy's corn-stores.
 * Todleben, vol. ii. p. 28S.