BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH. xxv 



determined to oppose it. In one night they threw up a counter ^^•ork ; and on the night, or, 

 rather, morning, the French attacked the works. The Zouaves went right in, led by Colonel 

 Cler. The enemy were prepared. They opened a very heavy fire from two bodies of infantry, 

 drawn up in readiness on the flanks of the work ; and into the works they poured a fire from 

 Round Tower and ships. The ' supports ' of tlie Zouaves (Marine regiments) ran away to a 

 man ; and the Zouaves retired, having behaved splendidly, losing 20 officers and 500 men. 

 General Demonet, who was in command, was hit in five places. The Colonel of the Zouaves, 

 Colonel Cler, had his clothes riddled. He said of his Zouaves, that ' he would engage to take 

 them anywhere, but he never would engage them to hold what they had taken.' The results 

 are these : the enemy perfected their work, armed it, and since have thrown up a fleche 

 several hundred yards in front of it. Nobody doubts the gallantry of the Zouaves, and 

 no one doubts the complete success of the enemy. Colonel Cler is quite honest about it ; and 

 he called his generals every sort of name for sending his regiment at the work in the way they 

 did. The attack was fully expected by the enemy ; they were in no way surprised ; their chief 

 loss was from their own shells. Cler said, 'I can answer for it, my Zouaves did not shoot a man ; 

 they bayoneted a few in the work, that was all.' " 



Arthur Hay watched events closely, if not hopefully, and his letters abound in information 

 and comments on the seige. Writing, on March IGth, from the camp at Balaclava, he dwells 

 at some length on the probabilities of taking the town. He could not say that it would 

 not be taken, when he bore in mind the brute courage of our men, which had no limit, but 

 at the same time he entertained grave doubts whether it would fall. In the state of defence 

 then existing, any troops attempting an assault would be crushed by the enormous fire which 

 the enemy could bring against them. In an engineering point of view, the Russians had 

 most decidedly the best of the position, and, what was worse, were rapidly increasing their 

 outworks. In numerous instances the dilatory nature of the British movements contrasts most 

 unfavourably with the skill and energy which marked the progress of the Russians. Even the 

 Engineers themselves scarcely knew when and from whence they were enfiladed by riflemen. 

 As an instance of this he mentions how he and a brother officer had a narrow escape : they 

 were standing at the angle of an approach with an Engineer, he " having assured them that 

 the parapet was quite high enough. This was certainly true the evening before ; but during the 

 night the enemy had thrown up cover for riflemen, and in the morning the whole of the trench 

 was enfiladed. A storm of bullets came whistling around their ears, and they made the best of 

 their way to a safer quarter." 



The boldness of the enemy in throwing up cover for their riflemen was remarkable. " They 

 usually made a strong sortie at night upon a trench as we were working at it, drove the covering 



