Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/54

21 FIGHTS ON WEST FLANK OF SEVASTOPOL. CM A P. II. impossible without cover from darkness — of secur- ing themselves in their prize against the guns of the fortress. Therefore, after first doing their best to ruin or damage its trench - work, they withdrew from the counter -approach thus long and fiercely contested, but not without a firm purpose on the part of their chiefs to attack it again the next night. Signals from the Volokoff tower; VII. On the 23d, the Russians learnt from deserters that the Allies had received great reinforcements, and their watch-tower (the Volokoff Battery) began to make signals. These signals announced that bodies of troops had been seen landing at Kami- esh, but they also declared that on the previous evening and afterwards in the early morning that followed, other bodies — apparently from ten to fifteen thousand — had been seen to be there en j barking. This last announcement gave rise to various conjectures; and, amongst them, to one which BBS?" suggested that the Allies might intend to effect a landing on some part of the coast, with a mind to operate thence against the Russian field army. Prince Gortchakoff, on this ground, considering that he ought to concentrate troops on the ' Old ' City Heights,' and in the neighbourhood of the Mackenzie Farm, reckoned also that, if doing so, he would not be able to replace any further heavy losses which the garrison might sustain Their c fleet on Prince Gortcha-