174 THE COUNSELS OF THE ALLIES. CHAP. vn. September (apparently the -28111). Sir Goorgu Catli cart's suggestion. The next day, the 28th, the seamen were busily engaged in Landing the siege-trains, but the pro- cess was not a short one ; and the men who gave counsel in the Allied camps had leisure to weigh the soundness of the conclusion to which they had been driving. It was at this time that Sir George Cathcart began to urge — and that with some eagerness — that the attack upon Sebastopol should be one of a summary kind. Upon completing the flank march he had been ordered, as we saw, to move his division straight up from the Tchernaya to the heights on the soutli of Sebastopol, without going down to Balaclava in the track of the main English army ; and he established himself upon ground confronting the Great Eedan, from which he looked down upon the head of the Man-of-war Harbour, seeing no small part of the town and yet more of the Karabel faubourg. Judging that he had discovered a way by which it would be feasible for the Allies to steal at once into the place, he addressed to Lord Eaglan a note, dated ' 1^, Height, mile from the liead of the Man-of- ' war Harbour/ in which he says: 'I am in the
- strongest and most perfect position I ever saw.
' Twenty thousand Russians could not disturb me ' in it with my division ; and if you and Sir John ' Burgoyne would pay me a visit, you can see ' everything in the w^ay of defences, which is not ' much. They are working at tw^o or three ' redoubts, but the place is only enclosed by a ' thing like a low park wall, not in g(jod repair.
