42 SKB.VSTOI'OL IJEFOPiK TllK IJATTLE CHAP, the soutli luuud the head of the Sebastopol Lay, ' M'ithout being forced to break in upon that part of the story with accounts from Prince ^Nfentsclii- koff's camp. Tiie under- Yet during those seven days which were passed .icfeiid by the Allies in earing for their wounded, and in HeUistoiioI. -^ . " marching to the southern coast of the peninsula, men faithful to their Czar and their country, and so endued with courage as to be able to exert tlu'ir whole power of mind nnd body under a weight of disasters which seemed hardly short of mere ruin, were entering upon a task of great moment, and destined to be famous in history. Expecting the attack of a victorious host, and abandoned — after the night of the 24th — by their own defeated aimy, an admiral with some thou- sands of sailors and woikmen, all guided by the skilled engineer whose achievement has made him illustrious, were preparing the defence of Sebastopol. A fair apprehension of the nature of the conflict which those brave men undertook must be based upon some acquaintance with the features of the ground, and the resources there were for defence. Tiieroa.i- Towards the south-western extremity of the Bc-bastoiioi. Crimea there is an arm of the sea, with a breadth (if from a thousand to fifteen hundred yards, which stretches in from the west to a distance of three miles and a half. This deep, narrow bay is the roadstead of Sebastopol.*
- The Allies were much in the custom of calling the hay oi
ro.ulsteaJ of Sehastopol ' the <(reat harbour,' ov soinetiincs only
