The soil between the Mamelon and Malakoff could be cut
into like a cheese, and the trenches were more easily made and better
constructed here than elsewhere. The English trenches before the Redan
had been stopped by solid rock; the French approaches to the Little
Redan, now only forty yards from it, had also got into soil so stony as
no longer to afford cover. The most advanced approach to the Malakoff
was separated from it by only twenty-five yards; in the soft soil the
trenches might have been pushed to the very edge of the ditch, but only
with great loss, and, besides, the facility of mining below them would
increase as the distance lessened. It was therefore deemed that the time
for assault had come, and it only remained to determine the details.
Accordingly, a council of war considered the matter. After the members
had delivered their opinions, Pelissier expressed himself thus: "I too
have my plan, but I will not breathe it to my pillow." There is,
however, no need to be so reticent with the reader.
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