Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/536

 492 THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN. iiupiessiou produced on the Alliefc by the enemy's cxliibitiou of numerical strength. Counsel offered by General Bvans. objects which had tempted them to their liiker- man venture. For what of weakness there was in that last concession to a defeated enemy, General Can- robert was answerable; but the English, as well as the French, felt the teaching of the Inkerman Sunday ; for it rudely dinned into their minds a sure knowledge of what before they had been learning more vaguely from despatches, deserters, and spies, and forced them to confront the fact that whilst playing the part of besiegers, the Allies were in the presence of an enemy whose luimbers almost doubled their own. General Evans, who had ridden up about mid-day from his sick-couch on board ship, became after a while so impressed by his perception of the enemy's great strength, and the evident losses sustained by our people, that, at the close of the battle, he did not shrink from recommending his chief to abandon the siege ; * and, although Lord Eaglan instantly, and with barely suppressed indignation, rejected tliis hasty counsel, he was for the possession of Sebustopol, it was apparently a mistake to imagine (as many did at the time) that there was something ignominious in proposing to raise the siege ; tor the enemy had double the strength of those who were assailing his fortress ; but there was another and a fatal objection to Evans's counsel. The Allies were not strong enough to be .'^ure of covering their embarkation ; and from the moment when they discard<d all idea of using their victory as a means of winning Seba.-^topol, the best and safest expedient remaining to them was the maintenance of a bold front, with pietences of i)ushing on the siege.
 * Since the Allies were not minded to strike a blow at once