The twilight would
struggle with the night for another two hours. Then it would be
intensely dark, for the sky was cloudy, and there would be no moon.
This gloom would favor the plans of Ivan Ogareff.
For a few days already a sharp frost had given warning of
the approaching rigor of the Siberian winter, and this evening
it was especially severe. The Russians posted by the bank of
the Angara, obliged to conceal their position, lighted no fires.
They suffered cruelly from the low temperature. A few feet
below them, the ice in large masses drifted down the current.
All day these masses had been seen passing rapidly between
the two banks.
This had been considered by the Grand Duke and his officers as fortunate.
Should the channel of the Angara continue to be thus obstructed,
the passage must be impracticable. The Tartars could use neither
rafts nor boats. As to their crossing the river on the ice,
that was not possible. The newly-frozen plain could not bear
the weight of an assaulting column.
This circumstance, as it appeared favorable to the defenders
of Irkutsk, Ogareff might have regretted. He did not do so, however.
The traitor knew well that the Tartars would not try to pass the Angara,
and that, on its side at least, their attempt was only a feint.
About ten in the evening, the state of the river sensibly improved, to the
great surprise of the besieged and still more to their disadvantage.
The passage till then impracticable, became all at once possible.
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