There
was nothing to relieve the horrible monotony of destruction and
devastation except the bridge, which promised retreat from this misery,
and which was approaching completion.
Yet it was after this visit that the Russian General changed his mind in
the direction of what he had before termed folly. "I am resolved," he
wrote to the Minister of War, on September 1st, "to defend the south
side to the last extremity, for it is the only honorable course which
remains to us." Calculating that the daily loss of the garrison was from
eight hundred to nine hundred, and that he could bring twenty-five
thousand men from the army outside to reenforce it, by leaving only
twenty thousand to guard the Mackenzie Heights, he considered he might
still prolong the defence for a month. Everything was against such a
cruel determination; but he proceeded to execute it so far as in him
lay. Yet it did not rest with him to determine the end.
The cannonade once more reduced the Malakoff, its dependencies and
neighbors, to absolute silence, and enabled the French to push their
works yet closer.
Pages:
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635