Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/185

 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 159 commanders? und wliy did they throwback the chat gifts which seemed to he brought them by the '. — fortune of battle? S'lyJ^V''' When our stormiug-force under Codrington was ?^^';,^g''f,^;;;;' ascending the ghicis in a crowd— in a crowd torn oM^ through and through by grape and canister — how came it that the enemy conhl suddenly mahe np his mind to stop the massacre and dismantle his Great lledoubt ? "When the remnant of our storming-force was Hocking back down the hil], why did the enemy spare from destroying it, and bring to a halt his triumphant Vladimir column ? Having several thousands of troops between the Causeway and the Kourgan^ Hill, wliy did the Ptussian Generals suffer Lacy Yea still to keep his stand on open ground with one disordered battalion ? AVe saw that when jNIentscliikoff, disturbed by the report of Bosquet's flank movement, rode off in great haste towards the sea, Prince Gortscha- koff was left in command of all that part of the PtUSsian army which confronted the English. Kvetzinski, the brave and able general who com- manded the Division on the Kourgane Hill, was under the orders of Prince Gortschakoff ; and as Ion" as the absence of the Commander-in-chief was protracted, Gortschakoff was the officer who had to answer for the defence of the Pass, and of the whole position thence extending to the ex- treme right of the Paissian army. Every pait of the ground thus committed to Prince Gortscha-