Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/233

 OPF.nATIONS ON THE DANUBE. 203 the month that he was able to appear before the chap. place; but thenceforth he lost no time, and on 1_ the 19th he opened his first parallel. The new defences of the fortress had been planned by Colonel Grach, a Prussian officer in the sei-vice of the Porte. He had brought to the work a great deal of knowledge and judgment. He was still in the place, and he continued to lend the aid of his science to the garrison when- ever he could do so without going out of his dwelling-house; but adhering, it seems, to the bare terms on which he had engaged his services, he stiffly abstained from taking any other than a scientific part in the struggle. Prince Paskievitch pressed the seige with a vehemence which seemed to disdain all economy of the lives of his soldiery ; and the place being weakly garrisoned, and seemingly abandoned to its fate, its fall was supposed to be nigh. To uphold the Sultan's cause three armies were af hand, but no one of them was moved forward with a view to relieve the place. Omar Pasha, shrewd and wary, was gathering the strength of the Otto- man Empire at Shumla, and it did not enter into his plan of campaign to smooth the path of the Piussian General by going forward in strength to give him a meeting under the guns of the be- leaguered fortress. On the other hand, France and England were rapidly assembling their for- ces in the neighbourhood of Varna, but, for want of sufficing means of land -transport, they were not yet in a condition to take the field.