Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/469

 6th Period THE MAIN FIGHT. 426 often broken by work, and little disturbed by chap. anxiety. People naturally though wrongly imagined that the enemy must have been yielding from the time when he abandoned the offensive, for they did not either know that he sought to en- trench himself on the ground he already had won, or that — dreaming of aid from Prince Gortscha- koff — he desired to stand firm and gain time. < )ur soldiery in most parts of the field had leisure to be conscious of their weariness, and to remem- hev with sensations of faintness that they had not yet broken their fast. It would be a mistake to imagine that under The, way in these strange conditions there arose on the part English of the 3000 English a deliberate resolve to attack aiiy drawn the position of Shell Hill without any aid from theoffen-' the French; for our people, in truth, did not know that the abstention of the French infantry was really destined to be permanent ; and, besides — English like — they toiled in a great measure separately, each man at his own special combat — without much bending their minds to other parts of the field. We shall see how, without having vowed themselves beforehand to any heroic enter- prise, they were gradually drawn on and on. It was in full consistency with his determina- tion to stand henceforth on the defensive that we shall find the enemy still trying to possess himself of the Barrier ; for the post was a clear encroach- ment upon his Shell Hill dominion. In the hours of his strength as an assailant the post at the