192 COLONEL YEA'S ATTACK.
chap, condition importing that all lie accosted must
! die — it so happened that those he addressed were
fatality stricken, one after another, before they could
SSSf" 8 ™swer his words.
A'Court Fisher made an endeavour to collect
the troops, but they proved to be so few in
number — scarce exceeding, he thought, 150 (*) —
as to be disqualified — until reinforced — for any
Order given assault on Scbastopol ; and, in expectation of a
" V ' th0 4.' 1 £ u / U
■Engineer time when fresh troops would come up in sup-
' officer.' x L
port, he ordered the men to do what we saw done
before by the scant remains of the covering party,
that is, to get under such cover as could be gained
by lying down and ensconcing themselves within
the slight hollows that here and there marked
the ground on the outer side of the Abattis. In
his efforts thus firmly maintained under raging
fire, 'the Engineer officer' was aided by the ex-
ceeding zeal and valour of Sergeant Landrey,
one of his sappers,
what to Our few men, lying down on the verge of the
expect from ,. . , -. .
A.battis, and under a mnmty fare delivered now
of fresh ° J
troopa. at a range of only some 80 yards, might well
enough yearn to be told that supports were at
last coming up ; but the actual conditions were
such — our ladders having all 'stranded' — that
a large despatch of fresh troops pushed forward
through storms of mitrail must have hugely aug-
mented the sacrifices already made by our people
without opening, perhaps after all, any clear, or
even dim prospect of seizing the Great Eedan.
Be that as it may, no fresh troops could be
