ITS BEARING ON THE FRENCH PLANS. 37 siaus;* and, the second design of the French chap. being thus — like the first one — defeated, it re- sults that, so far, Colonel Todleben obtained and Their re- suit. kept his ascendant at the seat of this under- ground war. IX. This result of their mining operations against The per- the Flagstaff Bastion tended strongly of course to part of the it -n besieger's withdraw our baffled allies from any still extant design now idea of making the Work their real pathway for from the ° • Flagstaff leading them into Sebastopol ; and thenceforth, Bastion to if not yet resolved, they were far on the road koff towards resolving that their plans against the main town need no longer include a set pur- pose to carry its defences by storm ; so that what perhaps one may call the peremptory part of their siege, that is, the 'Attack' they would push to the issue of a determined assault, was the one now about to be opened against the Malakoff Tower, or rather that girdle of works which by this time had closed round its base. In bringing themselves to this choice the French were much governed by thinking of what might await them after once breaking through the defences. They judged that their troops in such case would operate much more massively, and therefore more advantageously, in the spaces afforded by the Karabel Faubourg than in the ravines and the streets which inter- sected the town.t
- Niel and Todleben, ubi ante. t Niel, p. 139
4 KJJ
