Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/101

AM) NIGHT OF Tin: BATTLE. 71 slackened, tind then ceased calto'-ether. From chap. IV that time until night, the hours were blank, ' brinffinjj nothing for men to learn; but it does bearing of , , , . r ^ ^^ the iiiliubiU not appear that the booming ol the guns or the ants. still suspense which came after raised any of that kind of stir or emotion which signs of such import might be likely to create in a city devoted to the arts of peace. The people in the place were soldiers or sailors for the most part, and the rest of them were virtually amenable to military rule. Things went on in their accustomed way, but preparations were made for transporting wounded men from the North Side to the South, and fur carrying them thence in litters to the hospital To aid the work, the road up the hill alon" which the wounded would have to be carried was strongly lighted up. Prince ]Ient- Pri„ce Rchikoff, it would seem, reached Sebastopcl at kors about eleven o'clock at night, but already the sebastoi.oi rumours of the defeat had begun to creep into the town. At a later hour, boats coming across from the North Side began to discharge their freight of wounded men ; and afterwards, all the woundea night long, the dark shadows seen moving up by i,rougiit in the illuminated road to the hospital bore dismal uii^ui. witness of what must have been done in those three hours when the firing was heard at Sebastopol. It would seem that when Prince Mentschikoif and his naval vicegerent had reached Sebasto- }iul, bodily fatigue put oif to the morrow nearly all further action and counsel ; for, excepting the despatch of an aide-de-camp to St Peters-