Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/50

20 FIGHTS ON WEST FLANK OF SEBASTOPOL. CHAP. II. At about half-past nine in the evening, General Beuret led out a force of between three and four captureof 1 battalions against the counter-approach near the heatfcoim- head of the Quarantine Bay, and wrested it with- proMfo. out serious difficulty from the very few Russians who were there for the moment in charge ; but the enemy soon brought up some troops fully equal in strength to the French, and then there ensued a hard fight, the ebb and the flow so alternating that for a time, not computed by any at less than two hours, the issue seemed hanging in doubt. The French however at length made good their ascendant, drove the enemy out of the work, and — reversing its para- pet—soon made the entrenchment their own. The Cimo- titire coun- ter-ap- proach. Auxiliary cannonade V. But the principal subject of strife was the counter-approach which had fastened along the Cimetiere Ridge. To support his design of attacking this new Work with infantry, Pelissier took care to bom- bard every part of the Russian enceinte which stood near enough to be sharing in the ex- pected fights. His artillery raged so destruc- The Central tively against the batteries of the Central Bas- under°fire of tion and the adjacent works that they were, some Sieg^guus. of them, silenced, and all, it seems, brought to a nearly helpless condition; but Todleben in person came up to the Bastion, caused the dead and the wounded gunners to be replaced by fresh men,