Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/47

NEW COUNTER-APPROACHES. 17 power, he might be expected to plant on it bat- on a p. teries destructive of the French approaches, and ' indeed, one may say, would be able to stop the advance of the siege as then pressed against west- ern Sebastopol. It might well have been therefore conjectured Measures that, to secure the advantages offered, one or other it taken by c .1 • r ii • . ,h< ' French or the opposing forces would very soon pass into and the action ; but what happened was that they both by chance took their measures on the same night — the night of the 21st of May. It was then that our Allies pushed forward a trench by which they hoped in due time to be able to envelop the lodg- ments. It was then that the Russians began their boldly imagined enterprise. II. General Todleben in truth had projected a new Todieben's i i • i t • i projei i : and great counter-approach which was to establish a fortified ' Place d 'amies ' on all the great tract of ground which divided the enceinte of Sebastopol from the furthest or western slopes of the Cime- tiere Ridge. He at once, to begin with, would carry a trench along the front of most (not quite all) of the Cimetiere lodgments, and besides, at its southern extremity, would connect this new counter-approach with the enceinte of Sebastopol by a gabionnaded way. General Khrouleff too had his project, and de- and k sired that some lodgments established near the head of the Quarantine Lay should be also con- VOL. IX. B