this should be a mere demonstration, not to push far beyond the walls, but, by all the semblance of a serious advance, to attract as much attention as possible from the enemy.
Another and a greater embarrassment lay in the fact, that the troops intended for the coup de main had no other exit than the gate which led to Chiavari; so that the two lines of march would intersect and interfere with each other. Could we even have passed out our Tirailleurs in advance, the support could easily follow; but the enemy would, of course, notice the direction our advance would take, and our object be immediately detected.
"Why not pass the skirmishers out by the embrasures, to the left yonder?" said I; "I see many a track where men have gone already."
"It is steep as a wall," cried one.
"And there's a breast of rock in front that no foot could scale."
"You have at least a thousand feet of precipice above you, when you reach the glen, if ever you do reach it alive."
"And this to be done in the darkness of a night!"
Such were the discouraging comments which rattled, quick as musketry, around me.
"The lieutenant's right, nevertheless," said Giorgio. "Half the voltigeurs of the garrison know the path well already; and as to darkness—if there were a moon you dared not attempt it."
"There's some truth in that," observed an old major.