And will it be said that because the particulars of those conflicts have been made known to the world, and because the daring, the devotion, the gallantry, the heroism of our officers and men have been displayed before its eyes, that the English nation has lost its military lircst'njc! Would it have been possible, think you, to have concealed and slurred over our failures? Would it have been better to let the story be told in Russian despatches, in French Monitciirs, in English Gazettes 1 No; the very dead on Cathcart's-hill would be wronged as they lay mute in their bloody slirouds, and calumny and falsehood would insult that warrior race, which is not less than Roman, because it, too, has known a Trebia and a Thrasymene.
We all f ^el well assurc>d that it was no fault of our officers or men that Ave did not take the Redan, and Ave can point to the trenches piled deep with our gallant allies before the Redan of Careening Ray and the Central Bastion, and to the Malakhoff, won without the loss of 200 men, and invoke the goddess Fortune! Alas, she does not always fiivour the daring; she leaves them sometimes lifeless at the bloodstained embrasure, before the shattered traverse, in the deadly ditch, and she demands, as hostages, for the bestowal of her favours, skill and prudence, as well as audacity and courage. Every statement made by the Russian officers in conversation concurs in this — that we might have taken Sebastopol in September, 1854; that they were not only prepared to abandon f ho city to its fate, but that they regarded it as untenable and incapable of defence, and had some doubts of their position in the Crimea itself, till our inaction gave jMenscbikoft" courage, and raised in him hopes of an honourable defence, which might enable him to hold us in check, or to expose us to the attack of overwhelming masses.
They admit that their great error was the assumption of a simply defensive attitude after the battle of Inkermann, and they now feel that they ought to have renewed the attack upon our enfeebled army, notwithstanding the terrible loss they suffered in that memorable action. It may be mere military fanfaronade on their part to put forward such an assertion, but the Russians one and all declare that they could have retaken the MalakhofF under the fire of their ships, but that it had been clearly demonstrated since the fire opened on September the 5th, that it would be impossible to hold the south side under the increasing weight and proximity of the bombardment. " It was a veritable butchery, which demoralized our men so far as to make them doubt the chances of continuing the struggle.
We lost 3000 men a-day. No part of the city was safe, except the actual bombproofs in the batteries. We were content to have beaten the English at the Itedan, to have repulsed the French at the Bastion of Careening Bay (the Little Eedan), the Gervais Battery, and the Bastion Centrale, and to leave them the credit of surprising the MalakhofF; but, even had we held it, we must soon have retired to the north side, and we had been preparing for that contingency for some days." Such was the speech of one of their Staff to an officer of high rank in our service. There is a long song on theincidents of the war very popular in the Russian camp, in which Prince Menschikoff is exposed to some ridicule, and the allies to severe sarcasm.
Menschikott' is described as looking out of the window of a house in Bakshiserai, and inquiring for news from Sebastopol, and courier after coiu'ier arrives and saj^s, " Oh! Sebastopol is safe." '*' And what are the allies doing?" — " Oh! they are breaking down the houses of Balaklava and eating grapes." The same news for a day or two. At last a courier tells him the allies are cutting twigs in the valleySj and that they are digging great furrows three-quarters of a mile from the place, but that thej^ are afraid to approach it, and that the ships have begun to fire on them. " I declare they are going to besiege it," says he, "and, if so, I must defend it." And so he sends for his engineers, and they at first think the 4: CRIMEA. allies must be digging for gold, misled by ancient traditions about the mines, but at last they niako a reconnaissance, and, finding that the allies are really making distant a])proaches, they saj', " Why, we shall have time to throw up works, too;" and so they draw up their plans, and Todtleben says, " Give me five days, and I'll mount three guns for their two;" and Meuschikoii' dances and sings " Ha, ha!