182 GENERAL CAMPBELL'S ATTACK.
chap, new column with any semblance of power to
' go and attack the Redan. The body of men
we saw acting against the Artakoff Battery was
not by him known to be anywhere gathered;
and of troops acting under his orders there simply
were none, except the string of mixed soldiery we
saw sheltered under the parapet, — an unorganised
gathering of men not either so placed, or so cir-
cumstanced in other respects that they could be
wielded like a battalion drawn up on open ground
by any magic words of command. Nor to these
could Lord West really offer the sometimes al-
luring temptation of what our people mean by
a 'fight'; for the men knew by this time that,
if once over the parapet, they would still be
divided from their adversaries by a zone of open
ground — several hundreds of yards in breadth —
which they could not even hope to be crossing
except under torrents of grape-shot that needs
must shut out every prospect of closing with
the distant enemy, or even drawing near to his
counterscarp.
nis vain Still, when applying his energies to this or
that given part of the distended line, Lord West,
nobly seconded by his officers no less than by
the spirit of the men, proved here and there able
to get men out over the parapet ; and he judged
that, if this friendly barrier had been levelled be-
forehand along a good part of its course, he per-
haps would have found himself able to lead out
his troops in a body through the gap so laid open,
and to execute what at the least might have
