140 THE APRIL BOMBARDMENT. uhap. have to speak of these siege- work achievements, . — since we now can no longer be ignorant that — foredoomed to sheer barrenness by the spell of General Mel's ' mission ' — they involved exer- tions and losses which (so far as concerned any purpose directly, honestly warlike) were deliber- ately meant to prove bootless ; and this cold- blooded sacrificing of troops for a sovereign's personal object was more especially cruel to Canrobert's forces, because their siege-work was vast, and — against the Town front — so close- pressed as to be engaging them night after night in struggles costly to life.* Excepting Canrobert and Niel, and the very, very few men, if any, to whom their secret was trusted, the gallant Trench troops did not know but what they were real be- siegers — besiegers commissioned in earnest to toil and to fight, and if need be, to die in the effort to carry Sebastopol ; yet, as now we have learnt, they were, all the while, rather what courtiers might call an 'Army in waiting.' Still, it must not be put out of sight that, al- though — because not followed up — the advantage obtained ran to waste, the siege-trains, French and English together, did nevertheless achieve the essential part of their task. They prevailed towards the east, they prevailed towards the west, and in each of the two distant quarters, laid open a path for assault. They, however, obtained no such mastery over
- Treated as distinct from the ' April Bombardment,' those
struggles will be recorded in another chapter.
