Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/537

 SEQUEL TO INKERMAN NAIIKATIVE. 493 not himself at all blind to the peril of aiiothei C li A p. . VIII attack. Avoiding all spoken and written surmise '^ as to what might be expected from the French in Ragun's the event of a trymg emergency, he yet seemed of the to take it for granted that the defence of the under wiiich ^-^,, 1 1 • 1 h6 must act. Chersonese mv^st depend m large measure upon the strength of his own little force ; and under that aspect, his now diminished numbers were extravagantly inadequate as compared with those Russia had assembled. Out of the 8000 or 9000 infantry that he had been previously able to muster for field operations on the Chersonese, near 2600 now lay, as we saw, killed or wounded, and the conditions were such that a deduction of that magnitude from his strength was a graver misfortune to him than the loss of 12,000 to Mentschikoff. In a private letter to the Secretary of State he says, indeed, with just pride, — ' It was a glorious on, in his tranquil, business-like way, he discloses the slenderness of the numbers then left him for confronting another attack, and adds, — ' To speak ' frankly, we want every man you can send us/
 * day for the British arms ; ' but a little further