AND PREPARING. 291 Korniloff, that it was a right policy to exaggerate chap. the valour of these little enterprises in order to _ raise the contidence and enthusiasm of the gar- enfec't.^"'"^ rison. ' It is necessary/ he writes, ' to bring the ' defenders of Sebastopol into a kind of excited ' state of bravery ; and this can only be done by ' valuing their actions perhaps even higher than ' they deserve, and by giving them recompenses
- in the same measure.' *
And upon this view Korniloff was full willing to act ; for almost on the eve of the long - ex- pected attack, he issued a general order, in which, after telling the garrison that from the first they ' had shown a decided readiness to die but not to ' surrender the town entrusted to them by their ' beloved Czar and all Orthodox Eussia;' and after speaking to them of the fortifications which, by the unflinching energy of all, both officers and men, had been made to grow out of the earth, he went on to commemorate six trifling ventures of the kind I have described, and ended by saying, * Such ' continual exploits have evidently discouraged ' the enemy, and probably shame alone restrains
- him from flight.' -|-
- Letter of Admiral Istomiu to Admiral Korniloir, 3d {i.e.,
15th) of October. t General order of Korniloff, 3d (15th) October. It is curious and instructive to see that, in an appeal thus framed for the purpose of exalting the spirits of the garrison, Korniloff, who so well knew his way to the heart of the soldier and the sailor, avoided all mention of the more considerable successes achieved (such, for instance, as that at the Eodolph farmhouse), and con- fined himself strictly to anecdotes tending to show the boldne» of individuals.
