Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/208

 164 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP. VIII. The suffer- ings of the English army. Grievous excess of work im- posed upon them. IV. Lord Eaglan's army at this time was suffering — suffering cruelly — under a great complication of ills. One of tliese was the huge, crushing burthen of work unduly cast on our people. Their outpost duties were always anxious and harassing, their toils with spade and pickaxe fatiguing ; but more irksome than all, and much more trying to health, was the task of men serv- ing as ' guards in the trenches,' men — too often wet through from the first — who there had to be sitting all night in postures which cramped their limbs, with but little opportunity of mov- ing except when some ' alert ' called them up to meet an apprehended attack. To such tasks in the middle of winter our men were too often kept no less than five nights out of six ; (**) and when it is remembered that, besides his siege labours, the soldier had yet other duties, and in particu- lar his duties in camp, and the toil of provid- ing for his own wants, it will be granted by all that the burthen laid upon him was excessive, so excessive indeed and so long continued that, without a motive even more cogent than a desire to carry Sebastopol, the exaction of work thus severe would scarce have been warrantable ; (^^) but the truth is, as we shall afterwards learn more particularly, that the siege operations, though of course in their nature aggressive, were still. carried on at one time as a means of defence, nay, indeed, it may rightly be said as the only good expedient that could be found for