Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/175

EXULTING CONFIDENCE OF THE ALLIES. 145 the enemy was coming at last to the end of his c:i.i long-strained resources, and they imagined — not '. — perhaps wrongly — that the Faubourg of the Kara- belnaya — carrying with it the fate of Sebastopol — was ripe for assault. But with those who called to mind the immense and effective repairs which the enemy had so often achieved in the course of a night, it did not follow at all that the then ruined state of the Karabelnaya defences could be fairly expected to last until break of day on the morrow. The results of Pelissier's fierce war against all the 'town counter -approaches,' the triumphs of the Kertch Expedition, the joyful return of the victors, fresh, unending accessions of troops, the conquests, already made good, of the Selinghinsk and Volhynia Kedoubts, the Kamtchatka Lunette, and the ' Quarries ' — these welcomed gains upon gains had been acting of late on the hopes of the besiegers with great, with increasing effect ; and, when now in the afternoon hours of Sunday the 17th of June, they saw, or got to know of the havoc inflicted by their great cannonade, whilst observing, too, what — to their eyes — seemed the desperate plight of the garrison, there swept through the camps, French and English, an un- Exultant . . , . opinion governed flood of Opinion — Opinion making sure in camp, that the fortress must fall, and fall the next day. No general of course can find pardon for any mistake made in war by saying he was carried away by a torrent of feeling in camp ; but the all -pervading faith entertained by myriads and VOL. ix, K