Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/77

DISPOSITION 01' FORCES. 33 So great was the value attached by men in chap. authority to the force of a religious incentive, [^ that, even at the risk of putting their adver- saries on the alert, they, at four in the morn- ing, called people to mass and to battle by the clangour of the bells in their churches ; and it was with a soldiery consecrated for battle that Soimonoff before break of day would march out from the Karabel Faubourg. PaulofTs troops, as we know, lay on heights beyond the Tchernaya, but their spiritual guides were in camp, and with power scarce lessened by the want of any sacred appliances ; for customarily, even in cities, the utterances of the Eastern Church are delivered in the roar of strong priests without aid from the wailing of organs. When men heard the Sebastopol bells, the head of this column of PaulofTs was already some way on its march. soldiers pillaged in the early days of the siege, and they were seen carrying off their spoil by Russians posted at their bas- tions. VOT. VI.