Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/167

WHEN ABANDO^'ED BY TIIK AU.MY. 137 garrison to sell their lives dear, rnitiht also do u chap, , VI more wholesome service, by shaking the enemy's . counsels. In either aspect, the course to be taken was the same; and Todlebeu saw plain as day what had to be done. As before in providing for the defence of the Star Fort, so also in this emergency, he looked steadfastly to the condition of time ; and, con- ceiving that the Allies might make their attack at once, he took care that his endeavours to push forward the works towards that ulterior degree of perfection at which he was aiming should be always subordinated to the object of preparing them for the event of an assault taking place on the very morrow. Thus, for instance, he said it was better to be ready in time with the guns of a battery ill covered, or even not covered at all, than to have, at the moment of the assault, a work designed for great things, but marked by the fatal defect of not as yet being armed. In this necessity of looking to the question of time there was nothing novel ; but another of the conditions with which the garrison had to deal, was one which may be called unexampled, and uf 60 startling a kind that no common man would have been likely even to perceive it, still less to found upon it a course of action. Korniloff and Komiioff and Ttnlle- lodleben were not only able to see and understand i>en taking upon tlieii>> this condition, but to accept it with all its con- s^ues to ■^ dismantle sequences. They comprehended that, the fleet tue fleet: being prisoned in the roadstead, and Sebastopol — the sole hope and shelter of that same fleet— being