Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/218

 174 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, purifying the Chersonese Heights, Lord Eaglan ^ could not order the immediate execution of the work without either abandoning siege operations, or extorting aid from the French ; because, to attempt to do so would have been to draw further than ever upon the labouring power of the soldier, a resource already strained to the very utmost. Whilst already one man was doing the work of three, it would have been either vain or cruel to give an order importing that he must thenceforth achieve even more, and do the work of four, five, or six.(^^) Sufferings It was with tlicsc cxtraueous causes of evil endured by i • i our troops, to aggravate their lot that our troops ' were ex- ' posed under single canvas to all the sufferings ' and inconveniences of cold, rain, mud, and snow The Allied armies were spared from that access of true Kussian winter which sometimes obtains for a week or two in the Tauric peninsula ; but still the cold endured by our men proved at times so intense that numbers were stricken with frost-liite. It is true that with many, the circulation of the blood through the feet was in a state artiiicially checked ; for amongst the errors committed at home for want of a real War Department, there was one that perversely co-operated with the rigours of winter. At those hours — too rarely occurring — when the soldier might lie down and seek rest, it often- times happened that he dared not take off his boots because the London Office supplying tiiem had willed that they should be tight, and he
 * on high ground and in the depth of winter.'(^^)