THE SOUSDAL COUNTER-GUAEU. 209 deliberately converted them into a new Work of chap. . VII. counter-approach affecting the form of a redonbt, '— and so audaciously thrown forward as to be 141 yards in advance of the Russian line of defence and within 116 yards of the French siege- works* Although not yet supplied with its appointed armament, this new Work — the Sousdal Counter- TheSou3dai Counter- guard — was furnished already with nine little guard. 6-pound mortars which, along with the fire of the riflemen, were used to annoy the French work- men who toiled in their most advanced trenches. The work was connected with the flank of the Schwartz Eedoubt by a trench so placed as to be concealed from the eyes of French gunners by a fold of the ground. On the whole, this new counter-approach, if endured long enough to allow of its being completed and armed and defiantly maintained (as had been the Kamtchatka Lun- ette), would bring General Pelissier's corps d'armee into almost the same sort of plight as that in which we saw the French placed when fended off by new Works to a distance greater than ever from the front of the coveted Malakoff. General Canrobert, we know, grudged the loss that would have to be suffered in wresting this Sousdal Counter-guard from the enemy ; t but by strength of will armed with overpowering vehe-
- Todleben does not deny that this extreme proximity to the
enemy's siege-works was a defect, but says its position was dictated by the lay of the ground. The new Work was exe- cuted by troops of the Sousdal Regiment, and thence acquired its name. f Niel, p. 239, and Rousset, vol. ii. p. 166. VOL. VIII. O
