Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/57

THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 35 from disaster, that there could not but be a desire chap. to prevent the enemy from coming within the ' limits of the South Valley ; and considering, on ofTheoutw the one hand, the inconvenience of diverting fence™ 6 " troops from the siege for merely defensive pur- poses, and, on the other, the configuration of the ground in the plain of Balaclava, men thought that what was wanting in bayonets might possibly be eked out with the spade ; and this idea was the more readily pursued because it happened that — in part from the confidence of the Sultan, and in part from the graciousness of the French Com- mander — Lord Kaglan had obtained the services of some 3000 Turkish soldiers, who might first be employed in constructing the requisite earth- works, and then in manning them. Our Engineers saw that by throwing up a slight work on Can- robert's Hill, and a chain of little redoubts on the bosses or hillocks which mark at short intervals the range of the Causeway Heights, there might be formed an entrenched position which would enable a force of moderate strength to hold the ground against one much more numerous ; and it is evident that the design would have had a great value if the position of Balaclava, when expecting an attack from 20,000 or 25,000 men, had had a small army of 10,000 or 12,000 men to defend it. But no such conditions existed ; for, on the one hand, the Allies, if they could have time to come down, were in no danger at this period of being outnumbered in the plain ; and, on the other hand, there was not only no