The explosions still continued on the Qth, when in the afternoon Fort Paul was completely blown into the air; a failure in the firing arrangement prevented Fort Nicholas from following it. On this day the dead were brought out for burial. The open space between the Curtain and the intrenchment in rear of it, and the corner of the Little Redan, were heaped with slain. The explosion of a great magazine in this latter work had opened a chasm there, which was now made the grave of the Russians ; while the French killed in this part of the assault were brought out and laid on the grass before the Curtain, extending in long rows, according to their regiments, to the number of more than a thousand. One part of this space was heaped with the wreck of the two field batteries, and the bodies of the artillerymen and horses.
On the loth the Vladimir crossed the harbour, under a flag of truce, to ask for certain of the wounded which, in the retreat of the garrison, had been left behind in a hospital. The building was very spacious, and in it was concentrated an extraordinary amount of
Constancy of the Garrison. 287
human misery. It had afforded shelter to 2000 desperately wounded men. They had lain here two days and nights, without aid, without nourishment, surrounded by the din of explosions, and by flaming buildings, which alone dispelled for them the darkness of night. In one vast room were 700, many of whom had undergone amputation, and who were all dead of misery, lying in blood on their beds, or on the floor as they had writhed on to it. Five hundred were still alive, and were conveyed to the Vladimir. Three English officers wounded and captured in the assault were found here, who lived long enough to be conveyed to camp.
Perhaps even stronger testimony to the unhappy condition of the garrison was afforded by the provision made for sheltering the troops who occupied the works. Huge subterranean barracks had been dug under the ramparts, the earth above being supported on the trunks of trees. These dismal chambers were entered by tunnels, and it was here that the troops destined to oppose assaults found all the repose that could be given to them when not immediately called on to face the unrelenting iron storm which swept across the open space of the interior. Phrases can hardly do justice to the constancy, the military spirit, of a soldiery that could, under such conditions, readily obey the call which brought them to the last struggle, and so bear themselves in it that their enemies had everywhere recoiled, except at one point. The only vulnerable spot of the defences had proved to be that on which every resource of war had most profusely been brought to bear, and success here
288 Final Destruction of the Fleet.
had been achieved almost by accident. Pelissier tersely expressed how sharp had been the crisis, how doubtful the chance, when he said, " We were four all, and I turned the king." Vast consequences were involved in the fate of the Malakoff, for the chiefs of engineers and artillery, in face of the fact that we were again brought round to the time of year at which we had first approached Sebastopol, had come to the conviction that, if the place were not taken before winter, it would, as a matter of course, be necessary to raise the siege ; and they had gone on to the deduction that it was therefore indispensable to hasten its conclusion by an immediate assault.
Next day two eight-inch guns, placed on the esplanade of the town, were brought to bear on the Vladimir, hulling her several times. In the night the Russians consummated the sacrifice of all that they had fought to defend by burning or sinking the remainder of their war-vessels. Morning saw of the Black Sea Fleet no tokens except protruding stumps of masts, and fragments floating on the waters — a sight which any Turk who may have chanced to survive the massacre of Sinope must be thought to have surveyed with peculiar pleasure.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CLOSE OF THE WAR.