Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/239

 THE DEMEANOUli OF ENGLAND. 196 CHAPTER IX. DEMEANOUR UNDER THESE TRIALS OF THE STATE, AND THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. I. Ignoring or imperfectly recognising the now chap. extreme weakness of the English army. General [ — Critical Allied army. Canrobert still continued to dispose his troops statTofti in a way which left to our soldiers an inordin- ately large proportion of the common task ; and this perverse mis-arrangement so augmented the danger of being largely outnumbered, that it is hard to see how the Allies in the month of December or the January of the following year could have held their ground on the Chersonese against a powerful, well-directed, and determined attack. Yet they could not retreat. By their weak- ness, no less than by their pride, they were for- bidden to raise the siege. To dismantle their batteries, to withdraw their siege -guns, their siege materials, their cavalry, their field-artillery, their infantry, their mountains of stores from the