The troops were to withdraw during this destruction to a point five miles distant, and within view of the ships: an hour was allowed for coming to a decision, and warning was given that no modification of the terms would be entertained.
At the expiration of an hour, the English and French officers bearing the flag of truce, were informed that the Governor, Lieutenant-General Krasnoff, refused the terms, and that, having troops at his disposal, he intended to defend the place. He himself thus states the motives which led him to this decision, and suggests a mode of settling the matter at issue quite out of keeping with these practical days, and which carries us back far away into the Middle Ages.
" Having consulted with Major-General Count Tolstoi, Military-Governor of Taganrog, I sent the reply that my military honour forbade my giving up, without a struggle, the town, the defence of which was entrusted to me; that our troops were ready to die for the Emperor; and that, if the enemy really wished to spare the peaceful inhabitants, I invited him to land on the coast, and accept the combat which I offered him: to decide by arms the possession of Taganrog by the result of the day's battle." General Krasnoff appears to have been disappointed that this ingenious device was not appreciated by the foe, and he seems to have been no less surprised that no descent in force was made by the Allies.
After enumerating the preparations for defence which had been made in anticipation of such an event, and alluding to the "infernal" cannonade maintained on the town for several hours, and to the "uninterrupted noise of shells bursting, fusees, and grape, accompanied by fire-rockets and rifle-balls," he proceeds to give a minute and glowing description of the repulse of about 300 of the troops who had landed, and the complete discomfiture of
THE EAST.
the Allies, a success cheaply purchased by the death of (as usual) one Cossack. In spite of the melodramatic interest which attaches to such a story so ably told, we are compelled, in the cause of historical truth, to have recourse to the more sober, but scarcely less extraordinary, narrative of Captain Lyons.
No sooner was the flag of truce hauled down, than the Recruit commenced firing, and the gun-boats, having been towed into position and then cast off, opened so heavy a fire on the beach that all the attempts of the enemy to get into the houses which lined it, and so to save the long range of storehouses from destruction, were ineffectual. " Lieutenant Mackenzie," adds Captain Lyons " (the senior Lieutenant of this ship) had charge of a separate division of light boats, with rockets and one gun, to cover the approach of Lieutenant Cecil Buckley, of the Miranda, who, in a four-oared gig, accompanied by Mr. Henry Cooper, boatswain third class, and a crew of volunteers, repeatedly landed and fired the different stores and government buildings. This dangerous, not to say desperate service, when carried out in a town containing upwards of 3,000 troops constantly endeavouring to prevent it, and only checked by the fire of the boat's guns, was most effectually performed."
"By 3 p.m.," he continues, "all the long ranges of stores of grain, plank, and tar, and the vessels on the stocks were in a blaze, as well as the Custom-house and other government buildings, and unfortunately, but unavoidably, the town in many places, and, our purpose being amply effected, the boats returned to the Recruit. The loss of the enemy in men must have been severe, as many were seen to fall. They deserve credit for the obstinacy with which they endeavoured to gain positions to prevent our effecting the object we had in view, but it was impossible to face the continuous and well-directed fire kept up. Their loss in grain of different descriptions 1 cannot estimate, but, as it comprises all, or very nearly all, in store at Taganrog, it must be enormous."
The only casualty incurred on our side in carrying out this service was one marine artilleryman wounded.
On the 5th June the Russians, who had already on the 28th May withdrawn from Soudjak Kaleh, evacuated Anapa, thus abandoning their last stronghold on the Circassian coast.
The garrison, estimated at between 7,000 and 8,000 men, retired on the Kouban river, after exploding the powder magazines, disabling the greater portion of the guns, and setting fire to the barracks, storehouses, and all the coal and grain in the place. Both Anapa and Soudjak Kaleh were at once occupied by the Cii'cassians, and the Russians thus relinquished without striking a blow the cherished fruits of a five-and-twenty years' struggle with these hardy and untameable mountaineers.
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