188 COLONEL YEA'S ATTACK.
chap, from the first, this crushing fire of artillery was
v 1 1
about to be now reinforced by another arm of the
service. Our string of 100 Riflemen thrown out
in front had been formed as a 'covering party,'
which, if only the anterior bombardment had not
been omitted in deference to General Pelissier,
might perhaps have kept down any fire at-
tempted from what in such case would have
hardly been more than the ruins of Todleben's
Great Redan. As it was, our foremost hundred
of men, advancing under daylight across open
ground on a fortress at the height of its power,
were quickly mown down in great numbers, and,
the unwounded survivors still continuing their
forward movement, still keeping their place in
the front, became rather what we mean when we
speak of a ' forlorn hope ' than a ' covering party '
endowed with anything like a real power to keep
down or check the fire of either the mighty guns
which were hurling torrents of grape-shot on the
advancing troops, or even that of the infantry in-
dustriously driving their missiles from over the
top of the parapet.
These blasts of mitrail, reinforced by the rifle
and musketry, met the very ideal of Todleben ; for
his fixed belief was, as we know, that a fortress
whilst girded by lire of this enormous power must
be proof against any assault undertaken across a
broad zone.
For any mortal advancing in the teeth of the
extraordinary intensity of the fire is described in not less strong
terms by Sir George Brown and by Admiral Lushington,
