Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/423

THE 17TH OF OCTOBER. 393 The Sanspareil followed the Ao;amemuon, and chap. XIII the London, too, went out of action. !_ These, then, were the operations which Lyons summary conducted. With the aid of the shell from Car- had been negie's steam - frigate the Tribune, his squadron Lyons witii had effected, within the first few minutes of its squadron, anchoring, all the good that it was destined to achieve ; for by that time the batteries on the top of Fort Constantine had been ruined ; and during the period of nearly three hours which followed, the efforts of the ships were of no avail, except to afford one more proof of the reluctance of our seamen to accept discomfiture. At any range allowed to large ships by the extent of the shoal, the casemates of Fort Constantine were found to be an armour of proof against the guns of those days. If the casemated batteries at the water's edge Resistless proved all but safe against shot, they did not, on ^hllm the other hand, exert nmch power ; and unless a as against third species of force had been ready to take part ^ '^^' in the combat, neither the ships nor the sea-forts would have been very much altered in their rela- tive strength by the effect of a three hours' fight. But the interposition of the two little works on the cliff, or perhaps indeed one may say of the Telegraph Battery alone, wrought so great a havoc in the ships which came under their guns, as to give to the coast defences a decisive ascendant over their naval assailants ; and this result the cliff batteries were enabled to achieve without being subjected in return to any grave