Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/339

APPENDIX. 309 Note 2. — For the protection of their lives and property. — The word ' Tartars ' must have been used by the deputation in a specific sense, indicating some known band or hands of men sup- posed to be bent on pillage ; for the ' Tartars ' in the villages generally were at this very time giving shelter and kindly help to the frightened refugees from Kertch. — Ibid. General Todleben nowhere calls the men 'Tartars,' but always 'marauders.' Note 3. — The piteous screaming of women. — I have rightly spoken of the irruption of mounted Cossacks into a room as a fact of not unfrequent occurrence ; but, as regards one particular instance of it, my informant, Sir Edmund Strelecki (phonetically, Streleski), long the favourite of the London world, was one of those present. He was a lad at the time. After the famous retreat from Moscow, he was at an evening party going on upon the first floor when the Cossacks trotted up-stairs and rode into the drawing-room. It was not without reason that the Cossacks used to keep their saddles when entering houses and rooms. They used to have plunder stowed on the backs of their horses, and feared that, if separated from them, they would be robbed of the spoil by their comrades. In more recent times, the mounted Cossacks in the service of the State have been as much under control as the regular forces ; and, although not yet famous for prowess in combat, they are made useful in numberless waj'S. Note 4. — Meant to defend the place. — The summons demanded the surrender of — not the town, but — the Crown property. Whether General Krasnoff misread the summons, or only affected to have done so I do not know. Note 5. — That that last vessel perished. — Though accepted (through some inadvertence) by General Todleben, the story of a serious fight, and of bayonet charges, effected in defence of the stores, is altogether a fable. Note 6. — Harm to the town. — The story accepted by Todleben, of allied attacks made on some vessels that had sought refuge in the Gulf, and of the assailants having been beaten off by Kostra- kolf with his Cossacks, is fabulous ; not one man of the Allies, on the 5th of June, was either killed or wounded. Note 7. — To refrain altogether from sending it. — Rousset, who had access to the papers at the French War Office, imagined that the Emperor's telegram had miscarried or been made to miscarry ; but that, as we see from the text, was not the case. From the