"Faster! faster!"
And still, harassed by shot and shell, they pushed on.
All this time the road led by the water's edge; but presently they
left it, and, crossing the head of a creek, mounted a steep hill,
which brought them to the Karabel suburb, as it was called, a detached
part of the main town, now utterly wrecked and ruined by the
besiegers' fire.
The Cossack officer made his way to a large barrack occupying a
central elevated position, and dismounted at the principal doorway.
"Is it thou, Stoschberg?" cried a friend who came out to meet him.
"Here, in Sebastopol?"
"To my sorrow. Where is the general? I have news for him. The enemy
are moving in force upon the Tchernaya."
"Ha! is it so? And that has brought you here?"
"That, and the escort of yonder villain--a rascally spy, whom we
caught last night in our lines."
"Bring him along too; the general may wish to question him."
McKay was unbound, ordered to dismount, and then, still under escort,
was marched into the building. It was roofless, but an inner chamber
had been constructed--a cellar, so to speak--under the ground-floor,
with a roof of its own of rammed earth many feet thick, supported by
heavy beams. This was one of the famous casemates invented by
Todleben, impervious to shot and shell, and affording a safe shelter
to the troops.
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