158 GENERAL MAYRAN'S PREMATURE ATTACK.
chap, fuse that shone out through the still reigning
v II.
. darkness, General Mayran — over-anxious, expec-
tant, with nerves highly strung — imagined that
this was the appointed signal for commencing the
three French attacks, and — unmoved by the coun-
sels of officers who did not share his mistake —
he made haste to lead on — prematurely — the
forces placed under his charge.
Having been posted the night before in a part
of the Careenage Ravine that seemed apt for
his purpose, General Mayran, preceded by En-
gineers, and supported by two battalions of the
Voltigeurs of the Guard, was to turn the Point
Battery, and enter it by the gorge, to assail and
break throng! i the courtine extending from its
westerly Hank, then abruptly bend off to the left,
and (by operating from within the enceinte) lay
hold of the Little Redan. It was to assail this
courtine from a distance of some 800 yards that a
little before three o'clock, General Failly led on
his brigade. Met by fire of great power from the
ramparts, but also from six steamers anchored off
the mouth of the Careenage Ravine, the heads
of the columns were broken ; but, after a while,
Failly rallied them in a fold of the ground, and
renewed the attack, pushing forward, this time, to
ground no less far in advance than the verge of
the ' wolf-pits ' there sunk in front of the enemy's
works ; * but they only achieved this lengthened
- The trou de loup is a pit shaped like the hollow of an in
verted extinguisher, and is provided with a stake projecting upwards.
