Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/145

 WAY OK MINISTERING TO THE AKMIES. 101 and perhaps might not even be near, ought Lord CHAP. Eaglan to have still delayed trying to strengthen ' the clay-bedded waggon-wi^.y betwe'3ii his port and his camps ? Might he not hde .withdrawn for a time from his duties -as 'a.^iftasi-b^sicgerv and set a competent part of his army to the task of making a road ? This could not be done, and so we shall presently see. The attack of the 17th of October appeared at the time to have failed for that particular day owing mainly to what, in a sense, might be called a mere accident — that is, the unlucky explosion of a French magazine ; and the pro- ject, far from being abandoned, was only deferred — deferred at first to the morrow, then deferred for two days, and then indeed for the longer period extending over nearly a fortnight, but still only put off for a purpose well defined by the French ; and it resulted that during the interval, Lord Eaglan was ceaselessly kept under the same obligations as before — obligations which not only bound him to carry on his part of the siege-work with all possible vigour, but also to hold his army in readiness for executing an assault on the place wlienever the French should report that their measures were ripe for the enterprise ; so that, during the whole of that period, the small English army was engaged tc the utmost of its power in fulfilling plans of attack concerted with General Canrobert. And soon, a new exigency began to press hard on the Allies; for the enemy had been