Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/48

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18 NEW COUNTKU-AH'KOAniKS. C II A P. II. Both the projects adopted; and exe- cuted in (he nifrlit of the '21st, result- ing in; the Cime- tiure coun- ter-ap- proach; and the entr< nch- incut. nected by trench-work. The chiefs in Sebastopol saw that plans such as these were well calculated to provoke bloody fights, and might entail heavy sacrifices; but — although not unanimously — the proposals of both Todleben and Khrouleff were adopted by a Council of War. Accordingly, in the night of the 21st of May, the two systems of projected trench-work were successfully executed, and, before morning came, the ' two chains of lodgments ' had been already fore-trenched by continuous lines of defence. The Cimetiere trench alone could hold two bat- talions of troops ; and its southern extremity was now duly linked to the fortress by a well- covered line of way. So, at dawn on the 22d, our Allies saw the for- tress expanding, nay already expanded, before them ; since, where yesterday there had only been strings of the lodgments our people called ' rifle- ' pits,' there now ranged — however deficient in point of room and solidity — continuous lines of defence which 'annexed,' as it were, to Sebastopol a new, and great tract of land. III. pussier; Now Felissier — intent on the Faubourg — had no mind to carry Sebastopol by breaking in through its town front; and he well may have seen with regret that this Russian challenge in- vited him to conilicts on ground lying far from the principal path by which he would march to