276 lord raglan's insistence on change cnAP. XII. more espe- cially II the Flagstaff were not t.> be also assailed. Assaults mi the Re- dan from a distance out of harmony with the new French design. English undertook nevertheless to assail it, this was always, as Niel fairly owned, on the plain understanding that French attacks of the Flag- si all' Bastion should go on hand in hand with the task assumed by our people ; * so that, when, after the 10th of June, Pelissier chose to abandon his part of the twofold enterprise, there remained of course no ground at all for asking that the com- mander of English troops should engage to fling their strength from a distance against the Great Eedan, whilst not only covered on its left by the still defiant Malakoff, but also on its right by a Work which, though ripe for attack with the bayonet, was for some reason, good or bad, to be spared from the final ordeal, and not to be stormed at all. And, Pdlissier's latest resolve afforded yet one other reason against condemning our troops to adventure against the Redan any second assault. The ground in its front — rock thinly coated with soil — was of such a kind as to offer the English no prospect of ever proving able to drive their approaches close up to the Work ; and therefore any endeavour to go on toiling against it was out of all harmony with the new French design — a design which, despite the huge losses entailed by such a resolve, aimed at pushing the siege-works close up to the counterscarps, before renewing attempts to carry the defences by storm. On receiving the Memorandum of the 21st of
- Niel's acknowledgment of this will be found post, p. 2S0.
