THE OPENING OF THE SIEGE. 249 Ian apprehended that for the time, and until the chap. moment for assault should be ripe, our army must ' confine itself to such an operation as would en- able the Engineers to place in battery some guns of long range.* And by this time, there had come on a change sih oc-t. m the mind of Sir John Burgoyne ; for, although tiien stated . . r, Opinion; lie had been ' very sanguine of success at first,' yet now, on the day which followed the council, he astonished Lord Eaglan by announcing that
- he saw insuperable difficulties in carrying on
' his Engineer works within breaching distance ' under the heavy fire which could be brought ' to bear upon them, and that the English must ' make up their minds to consider their position
- as principally one of bombardment, and as con-
' tributing to divert the enemy from the attack ' on the left ' — the attack where the French were to act.f This opinion of his chief Engineer came upon • Lord Eaglan seems to ascribe to the decision of his Divi- sional Generals the necessity of thus confining the operations of the English army ; for immediately after stating the opinion they gave him he writes, ' It was *' therefore " resolved to con- ' fine ourselves,' &c. — Private letter to Duke of Newcastle, 8th October 1854. t Private letter, Lord Rnglau to Duke of Newcastle, 8th October 1854. It must not be understood that the word ' bom- ' bardment,' when used by Lord Raglan and others who wrote at that time, meant only what in strictness it signified — that is, a fire of bombs or shells. The cxpres.sion was used at the time as signifying a cannonade directed against a fortress and its defences ; and an endeavour since made to restore to the word its original significance has not, I think, been attended with any decisive success.
