f. This they did with but
slight loss. The storming columns were immensely strong, as 30,000 men
were gathered in their trenches for the attack upon the Malakoff. This
was effected almost instantaneously.

Upon the signal being given, they leaped in crowds from the advanced
trench, climbed over the abattis, descended the ditch and swarmed up
the rugged slope in hundreds.

The Russians, taken wholly by surprise, vainly fired their cannon, but
ere the men could come out from their underground caves, the French
were already leaping down upon them. It was a slaughter rather than a
fight, and in an incredibly short time the Malakoff was completely in
the possession of the French. In less than a minute from the time they
leaped from the trenches their flag floated on the parapet.

The Russians, recovered from their first surprise, soon made
tremendous attempts to regain their lost position, and five minutes
after the French had entered, great masses of Russians moved forward
to dispute its possession. For seven hours, from twelve to dusk, the
Russians strove obstinately to recover the Malakoff, but the masses of
men which the French poured in as soon as it was captured, enabled
them to resist the assaults.

At length, when night came on, the Russian general, seeing that the
tremendous slaughter which his troops were suffering availed nothing,
withdrew them from the attack.

As the French flag appeared on the Malakoff, the English covering
parties leaped from the trenches, and rushed forward. As they did so a
storm of shot and shell swept upon them, and a great number of men and
officers were killed as they crossed the 250 yards between the
trenches and the Redan. This work was a salient, that is to say a work
whose centre is advanced, the two sides meeting there at an angle. In
case of the Redan it was a very obtuse angle, and the attacks should
have been delivered far up the sides, as men entering at the angle
itself would be exposed to the concentrated fire of the enemy behind
the breastworks which ran across the broad base of the triangle. The
projecting angle was, however, of course the point nearest to the
English lines, and, exposed as they were to the sweeping fire of the
enemy while crossing the open, both columns of assault naturally made
for this point.

The Russian resistance was slight, and the stormers burst into the
work. The abattis had been torn to pieces by the cannonade, and the
men did not wait for