The view here given was unattainable until after the fall of Sebastopol, as no part of the Docks was visible from the French or English lines, with the exception of a tall black mast used as a crane for putting heavy articles on board ship. On the right running northwards is a long range of buildings, which were used as hospitals, and it was here that the Russian wounded, who had been abandoned on the retreat, were found, after days and nights of untended suffering, in a state and amidst circumstances whose horrors fortunately transcend the powers of description.
At the extremity of these buildings is a crumbling mound of earth — all that remains to mark the spot on which Fort Paul, which was blown up by the Russians in their flight, once stood.
On the opposite point of the inner bay is Fort Nicholas, which for some reason or other escaped at this time a fate intended to have been universal: only to be destroyed at a later period by the conquerors, whose plans the Russians were unconsciously anticipating — by pursuing in their evacuation of Sebastopol the traditional policy of the empire, inaugurated at Moscow in the beginning of the century.
PLATE LXVII.
INTERIOR OF THE MALAKOFF, WITH THE REMAINS OF THE
ROUND TOWER.
It is the night after the capture of the Malakoff, and the French are securely established in the work. The furious excitement of the strife is over; the thrilling shout of the wild Zouave and the ferocious yell of the dogged Muscovite are alike silenced; the rushing tide of battle has receded, and the noise of its angry waves is hushed upon the shore. But has it left no traces of its devastating wrath? Alas, and alas! Thickly on the fatal strand lie those who erewhile with strong right arm and manful breast l)attled amidst the raging waters, and strained for the beach, only to reach it maimed and bleeding, or be dashed upon it lifeless corpses.
Vainly for those whose warfare is thus accomplished, the flag round which they rallied, and beneath whose folds they fell, may float o'er shattered traverse, and dismantled gun; vainly the lurid sky and reeking smoke-drift from the burning city may mark the desperate resolution of the vanquished
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and baffled foe; their last fight is over, never to be renewed; their last victory won, never to be disputed.
But there are others to whom life, and with it hope, yet remain, and for whom the tender sympathy and ready succour of their more fortunate comrades bring solace and alleviation even amidst the torture of wounds and the agonies of thirst.
Not theirs at least to lie uncared for and untended through the long hours of the burning day and the gloomy darkness of the weary night; to feel the dread apprehension, fast ripening into certainty, that they are forgotten and deserted in their utmost need; that the life-blood which is ebbing fast away will not be stanched; that the cooling draught of water for which they yearn with longings unutterable will never be pressed to their parched and fevered lips; and that, with help almost within call, they are left to perish without one look of sympathy, one word of consolation, in a place which the festering bodies of those who have outstripped them in the race of death are fast changing into a pest-house. Yet this is but a feeble shadowing forth of what was even then occurring within one short mile of this very spot; hundreds of wounded Russians were in their last extremity, and groping in the blackness of despair for aid which, had their wretched position but been known, would have been as freely lavished by their generous enemies on them as on their own suffering comrades.
The wounded then are cared for, and the dead carried with sorrow and with reverence to their long home: but the strong and healthy and unscathed, they also are here gathered in groups about the interior of the work, or seen in vivid relief against the wild red sky as they stand upon the parapet. And what the aspect of these, the heroes of the hour, the victors in a strife of giants, in the flush of their long-deferred and hardly-earned success? Where are the voice of exultation and the song of triumph '?