Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/238

 208 EFFECT PIIODUCED BY THE CHAP, parapet spoke much above a wliisper, the sound !_ of his voice used to draw the enemy's fire towards the nearest loophole or embrasure. Captain But- ler, it seems, with a view to throw up a new work of defence, "was reconnoitring the enemy's approaches through an aperture made in the parapet, and was consulting about his plan with General Cannon, when the General's aide-decamp said something in a tone loud enough to be heard by a Russian marksman. The sound brought a rifle-ball in through the loophole and struck Captain Butler the blow from which (being weakened by toil and privation) he died before the end of the siege. For some reason which he deemed to be im- perative — stringent orders, perhaps, from Shumla — General Cannon marched out of the place with his brigade on the 18th of June, and at his request Nasmyth also went away for a time in order to confer with Omar Pasha at the Turkish head- quarters ; but meanwhile Lieutenant Ballard of the Indian army, coming thither of his own free will, had thrown himself into the besieged town ; and whenever the enemy stirred, there was always, at the least, one English lad in the Arab Tabia, directing the counsels of the garrison, repressing the thought of surrender, and keeping the men in good heart.* the ' Times ' were given, as is well known, bj' Nasmyth hini- wlf, and by the o(Hcer who succeeded to him and to Butler in governing the counsels of the garrison and helping to defend the Arab Tabia. Therefore any other account of the siege which 1
 * The narratives of the siege of Silistria which appeared in