Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/111

THE CIRCASSIAN FORTS HELD BY RUSSIA. 81 a detachment of English artillery and fifteen 32- pounder battering guns was quickly despatched 1 . to Sir George Brown.

Fail of Soudjak-Kalé

Divining apparently the purpose of the Allies, General Khouniatoff determined that, without kaie. ' awaiting the expected attack, Soudjak-Kale should be abandoned, and accordingly on the 28th of May, after first destroying its batteries (which comprised sixty guns and six mortars), he with- drew all his troops from the place.

Desire to attack Anapa

But Anapa at this time was still holding out; Desire to attack and upon the reduction of this latter and much Anapa, greater fortress the desire of the Allies became concentrated.

This forbidden by Louis Napoleon. All at once, under orders from Paris, the attack upon Anapa by either Frencn ships or French troops was forbidden in terms the most peremp- tory that language could furnish.

It may well be supposed that attributing to himself all the powers of a thoroughly absolute sovereign, and sincerely convinced of his skill in the art of waging war from a distance, the French Emperor had suffered acutely on find- ing himself set aside in the way we have seen by the stern, unbending Pelissier ; and — as though to recover his self-respect, and his sense of being really an Emperor — the bitterly morti- fied sovereign clutched hard at what seemed an occasion for asserting himself once more as a potentate that even strong men must obey. Having heard of the resolve to make an attack

upon Anapa, he ventured to come down on