ander would not, and
did not, trouble to garrison them with infantry, but merely assured
their having a sufficiency of gunners to replace possible casualties.
Then again, compared with a heavily-armed stone fort, what is a wooden
ship? It was a hopeless and a foolish undertaking, and it is not
surprising that the allied fleet retired, having done little damage,
although they had suffered severely themselves.

On shore things were perhaps a little more satisfactory. Three star
shells fired from Mount Rudolph, the French battery, gave the signal for
the bombardment at an early hour on October 17th, and from that moment
for four awful hours the Allies' combined 126 heavy guns poured a hail
of shell into the Russian defences. These consisted of outworks and of
various forts of formidable power known as the Flagstaff Bastion, the
Malakoff, and the Redan, the whole armed with 118 guns, not to mention a
thousand and more of lighter casting to be used in case of assault.

But for an untoward event Sebastopol might have fallen on that very day,
and the Crimea as a campaign have sunk into comparative historical
insignificance. After four hours' firing a shell unluckily struck the
magazine of Mount Rudolph, and with a roar which shook the surrounding
camp the battery was destroyed. The French fire at once ceased, and was
not renewed for two days. As for the British, they battered the
Malakoff, reducing the stone-work to ruin, and silenced its guns. Soon
afterwards the magazine of the Redan exploded, and though our fire still
continued furiously, it was answered only feebly and at intervals,
showing that the enemy too had suffered heavily like the French.

And now let us consider, before returning to Phil and his comrades, why
an assault was not delivered either at once, or on the following
morning. But for the calamity to the French this would have occurred;
owing, however, to the destruction of their chief battery, and the
consequent failure to destroy the defences in front of them, assault
became almost impracticable, while now that they were to some extent
demoralised, it was utterly hopeless. Also it must be borne in mind
that the force in Sebastopol was greatly superior in numbers to the
Allies, while an attack in rear by the Russian army in the field was
always to be dreaded, and, as will be seen, was not long in actually
occurring. As to an assault on the following day, dawn showed that it
was useless to attempt