The trenches were widened at convenient spots so as to be capable of containing without confusion the whole of the attacking divisions and reserves, and, as it was important to conceal the movement of these large bodies of troops from the enemy, the ridges of all the lines of communication leading to the advanced ■places (Varmes had been heightened, wherever there was danger of being seen.
The engineers were amply provided with every description of intrenching tools, a supply of which was also distributed amongst the stormers; the artillerymen were provided with hammers and spiking nails to disable the enemy's guns: and a large quantity of bridges of a new and ingenious construction had been furnished to parties of sappers previously instructed in the method of manoeuvring them. Reserves of field-batteries were also prepared to be in readiness to take part in the action if occasion offered.
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At the same time the whole of the French force on the Tchernaya was held under arms to check any threatening movement on the part of the army of relief.
Shortly before noon the cannonade, which had been vigorously sustained up to that time, was purposely permitted to slacken, the more thoroughly to deceive the enemy, who had been further thrown off their guard by the French, on the preceding evening, breaking out the commencement of a new sap, as if they meant to advance closer before the assault. The French troops, to the number, including reserves, of 30,000 men, being now assembled at the points previously designated, at twelve o'clock precisely the signal for the assault was given. At the same moment the drums and bugles beat and sounded the charge, and amidst repeated cries of "Vive VEmpcrcnr! " the divisions of McMahon, Dulac, and De La Motterouge rushed from the trenches, and fell like a triple avalanche on the Malakoff, the little Eedan, and the Curtain. Crossing the ditches of these works with incredible agility, they swarmed up the parapets, and in a few seconds were engaged in a handto-hand conflict with the defenders. At the Malakoff itself the success was rapid and complete. Thoroughly taken by surprise, its garrison still made a show of resistance, and the fight, commenced with musket-shots, was for a while protracted with the bayonet, with clubbed muskets, with pickaxes, and even with stones, so close and so deadly had it become.
In vain, however, the Russians exhaust the resources of desperation — a few minutes more and the parapet is crossed, the work entered, the remainder of the garrison either killed or driven out, and the flag of France is planted firmly on the Malakoff, " never," in the words of General Pelissier, " to be torn down."
At the right and in the centre the struggle was far more severe, but here again the resistless impetuosity of the French attack for a time triumphed over every obstacle, and the assailants gained possession of the Little Redan and the Curtain, penetrating even to the second enceinte or entrenchment which had been constructed in the rear of these works. At this time General Bosquet, struck in the right side by the explosion of a shell, was forced to leave the field of battle, and was succeeded in his command by General Dulac.
The tricolor seen floating from the Malakoff was the signal for the attacks on the Redan and on the Central Bastion. Scarcely a quarter of an hour had elapsed from the first rush of the French, when the assaulting column of the English, numbering 1,000 men of the Light and Second Divisions, those of the former being in advance, and the whole preceded by a covering party of 200 men, and a ladder party of 320, moved out of the trenches of the fifth parallel. As they crossed the 200 yards of ground which still intervened between this point and the Redan, they were exposed to a terrible fire of grape from the flanks; and officers and men fell so thickly that the whole of this space was covered with the dead and wounded. " Colonel Unett, of the
11- THE EAST.