Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/76

44 RESULTS. chap, vigour which almost undid the curse — the potent . — curse — of defeat, and so bore themselves that, after a while, they stood, as some thought, in less jeopardy than the baffled victors of Inkerman. This vigour did not drive the Allies to so desperate a course as that of raising the siege, and trying to regain their ships ; but at least it impelled them so strongly to escape from an ugly predicament that they resigned themselves to a change implying confession of error. By accept- ing Sir John Burgoyne's counsels, they seemed in effect to acknowledge that what they had done already had been, much of it, done in vain, and that what they would henceforth treat as the cardinal act of their enterprise was only now to begin. In the course of this period therefore, as must now have been seen, the great colonel of Sappers wrought wonders ; for, as before under yet more appalling conditions he (with Korniloff then at his side) had found means to ward off from Eussia what seemed the natural consequence of her de- feat on the Alma, so now he in large measure neutralised the effect of her terrible overthrow sustained on the 5th of November, and even turned the scale against victory by a masterful exertion of power which made the invaders de- spair — not indeed of their siege altogether, but — of their siege as hitherto planned.