THE ENEMY'S GREAT NIGHT ATTACK. 99 The misfortune which threw Colonel Kelly chap. rv. into the hands of the enemy was unknown at the time to our troops, and men supposed after a while that 'the field officer of the night' had been killed. Jordan did not mistake when he said that a part of our foremost parallel was seemingly in the enemy's hands. Moving out from the fortress a body of troops under Astapoff had The attack it j? under As- advanced, and advanced unobserved so far up tapoir. the right bank of the gorge which carries the Woronzoff Eoad as to be able to assail by sur- prise the left flank of Gordon's attack, and to operate thence advantageously against its fore- most parallel. They accordingly — surprising the trench-guards — broke into a part of the parallel lying westward of the Mortar Battery ; * and after thus entering the work, pursued the advan- tage some way along the course of the trench without meeting, so far as is known, any strongly sustained resistance at the hands of troops caught under circumstances which prevented them from showing a front. Able officers, however, were busied in the task Means of ... . i resistance of collecting some means with which to repel the collected. invasion. Marsh (the 'Adjutant of the trenches ' that night) got together some men. Lieutenant the table of General Osten-Sacken (the Commandant of Sebas- topol) that food was supplied to the wounded officer.
- Whether they entered (as Todleben thought) at the flank
or (as Lord Raglan supposed) by the left front, or, as seems probable, by the left rear, there are seemingly no means of showing.
