canrobert's determination. 81 They, however, could still question whether their chap, more prudent course would be to attack the new ! — outwork at once whilst still only in embryo, or wait until it should grow up to the estate of a completed Lunette, and be bristling with guns. The alternative which forbade a recourse to any Their re- solve not speedv assault was the one the French chose ; assault the
- J _ new work;
and accordingly on the following night — the night of the 11th — they opened their first par- allel against the young, tender ' Work,' not then one day old ; * thus almost repeating in miniature the all-involving mistake of the previous autumn — the mistake of ' besieging ' an embryo. To enter on a course of ' approaches ' was to but to . proceed give the enemy time ; and time or course was the against . Jt t>y ' a P- blessing he craved for his infant Lunette. So, 'preaches.' whilst day after day, and night after night, his antagonists worked in their trenches, he was driving on the completion of his newly inter- posed outwork, and covering both its front and its flanks with a double chain of ' lodgments.' The Allies before long brought a powerful fire of artillery to bear on the growing Lunette, and the French battled hard — battled even on the whole with advantage — for some of its covering ' lodgments ' ; but — taken alone — no such meas- ures were sufficing to carry the Work ; and, since (under the bonds of that reason which had held back their general on the 10th of March) the French as yet were not minded to undertake an assault, they had to bear the torment of seeing or
- Niel, p. 170.
VOL. VIII. F
