Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/322

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292 THE GAURISON REINFORCED CHAP. All this while, and with ceaseless energy, Tod- leben had been pressing on the defences ; and Tiierespite j^ sccms to havc tumcd out that the respite of needed ; '■ twenty days with which the Allies had been in- dulging Sebastopol, was a respite of the very length that the garrison needed for bringing the and granted, works couimenced since the 26th of September to a state of all but completion.* In that interval great wonders had been wrought. Besides all that had been done to develop the might of artillery, due care, as we saw, had been given to those other numberless works which were requisite for the defence of the place ; and if that be premised, it would be pos- sible to convey some idea of the proportion in strength which the wliolc systcm of the defences gained twenty'iiiys Strength during those twenty days by showing d'efen'oes'" the iiicrcasc of power which was given within that time to the armament of the Sebastopol bat- teries. On the 26th of September, the land de- fences on the south side of the place were armed with 172 pieces of ordnance, which, if each gun were once fired, could discharge missiles weigh- ing altogether some 3000 pounds. The twenty days passed, and by the end of that time the guns in battery along the same lines of defence were in number 341, with calibres for throw- ing, in one salvo, about 8000 pounds' weight of shot.j- suiiiinaryof Tlius, thcu, it cau bc Said that in almost all the def*-..dcra ingredients of warlike strength the defenders of

  • Todleben, p. 301. t Ibid. p. 313 et seq.