BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH, xxiii 



short time longer than wouhl have been the case in the open. The Enghsh sick rarely left the 

 hospitals, a circumstance to be accounted for by the fact that very few of our men were really 

 sound. The men were Avorked in the trenches, where they struggled against fatigue and the 

 constant fire of the enemy, supported by that indomitable pluck which forbade them to give in as 

 long as it was possible to stand up, and when they succumbed they were borne to the hospital, 

 where death stood before them. 



As the winter wore on the improvement in the state of the British Army, if any, was small ; 

 but perforce our soldiers, for lack of strength, were relieved by our allies from some of the duties 

 of the siege. On the 23rd January (1855), in the hope of saving the remnant of the Brigade, 

 the Grenadier Guards received orders to march from their camp on the plateau down to Balaclava, 

 to be followed immediately by the Coldstreams, and then by the Fusileers. They had suffered 

 severely at Inkerman, and had been so reduced by losses in action and sickness, that it had been 

 necessary to exempt them from picquet-duty soon after the 5th November, though they still were 

 on duty in the trenches. They were encamped at the head of the harbour, and were thus 

 removed from active participation in the siege, but they were in constant expectancy of decisive 

 action. The French had previously undertaken the siege-works and ground on the English 

 right, which was strengthened so as to guard against all risk of a couip de main against the allied 

 Camp. Canards had been constantly flying about the British head-quarters for a long time ; all 

 kinds of sensational stories were permitted to take wing ; but with a very few exceptions they 

 proved wholly unreliable. One of the most high-flown Avas a statement said to be received from 

 the highest authority, that the enemy were nearly destroyed by sickness, and had lost all their 

 artillery and transport ; and yet very shortly afterwards they appeared before Eupatoria with 

 30,000 men and 60 guns ! 



Writing on the 2nd February, 1855, Arthur Hay animadverts upon the want of precaution 

 on the right and right front of the British, and wonders why the enemy had never attempted 

 any serious attack against either. The town was enormously strong, and if the fire succeeded in 

 silencing the enemy's batteries, it might be possible to storm ; but the roads were bad, the 

 transport had broken down, the ammunition was not yet up, and the enemy were in sufficient 

 strength to threaten the British rear ; " altogether the position seems to be too anomalous to 

 justify Hiy offering any opinion on the subject." The officers and men of the Naval Brigade, he 

 says, "have shown themselves the most useful and the least troublesome people during the 

 progress of our siege operations. They stand the weather better than the troops, they fetch up 

 all their own supplies, and are the only real good gunners we have." 



"You would suppose from the papers that no one was let into the batteries, that no 

 spy could pass, because a Mr. Hamilton was made prisoner. A dozen Russians might walk 



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