Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/197

 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 171 for saddle - horses ; and presently in the front, c HA P. but some way of!' towards the left, he saw before '. — him a high commanding knoll, and, strange to say, there seemed to be no Russians near it. In- stantly, and before he reached the high ground, he saw the prize and divined its worth. He was swift to seize it. Without stopping — nay, even, one almost may say, without breaking the stride of his horse — he turned to General Airey, wdio rode close at his side, and ordered him to bring up Adams's brigade with all possible speed. Then, still pressing on and on, the foremost rider of the Allied armies, he gained the summit of the knoll. I know of no battle in which, whilst the forces Lord Rag- lan s posi- of his adversary were still upon their ground, and «on on the still unbroken, a general has had the fortune to stand upon a spot so commanding as that which Lord Eaglan now found on the summit of the knoll. The truth is, that the Russian commander had not troops enough to occupy the whole po- sition, and the part he neglected was, happily, that very one into which Lord Raglan had ridden. During the earlier part of the day a battalion had been posted in the ravine close under the knoll ; but, in an evil hour for the Czar, the battalion had been removed,* and, the enemy having no other troops in the immediate neighbourhood, and having no guns in battery which commanded the summit of the knoll, the English General, though as yet he had no troops with him, stood un- molested in the heart of the enemy's position —
 * The No. 1 Taroutine battalion.— C/tot/asiewicz.