THE COUNSELS OF THE ALLIES. 179 ' is unassailable at both flanks. The ravines chap. ' descending into the tcjwn and the suburb are '__ ' all of them open to a raking tire, either from
- the land batteries, or from the broadsides of
' the ships for that purpose moored in the creeks; ' and it is along one or more of the intervening ' ridges that the assailant would have to advance. ' Of the ridges available for such an attempt without ' there are three; but each of them is powerfully tuesiege- ' defended — the first by the Flagstaff Bastion, ' the second by the Iledan, and the third by the ' White Tower.* Our troops, in approaching ' either of those three works, would have to move
- under the fire of the enemy's batteries for a
' space of some 2000 yards. They would have ' to traverse ground quite unknown to them. ' Any attack upon the enemy's defences must be ' made from an extended, diverging circumference; ' and besides, our assailing forces would be so ' split by these deep, interposing ravines as to ' become divided into isolated bodies of men ' incapable of giving one another any mutual ' help.+ ' Including the sailors now acting as a land ' force, the garrison is probably from 25,000 to ' 30,000 strong ; J and, within a day's march of
- Afterwards called the Malakotr.
+ The above arguments were in substance urged liy Sir John Biugoyne. i See 'Military Ojiinions' of Sir John Burgoync, pp. 107, 201, 240, in which last page, however, the estimate is from 20,000 to 2.5,000 ; and also the narrative of a French Divisioual General, given in the Aj>pendix.
