Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/198

 172 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP, stood between that wing of the Kussian army ^ which confronted the French, and that doubly large portion of it which confronted the English The knoll was not, indeed, so situated as to com- mand a distant view towards our right ; but, glancing to his left, or, in other words, glancing eastward and up the valley of the river. Lord Eaglan saw in profile his own line of battle, but also (rare fortune !) he equally saw in profile the whole of that line of battle which the Prussians opposed to his troops. Nor was even this all; for upon turning his eyes towards the rear of the enemy's Causeway batteries, he saw what then constituted the whole of Prince Mentschikoff's ' Great Eeserve ' — that is, a force of infantry drawn up in two heavy columns.* The formation of each mass looked close and perfect as though it had been made of marble, and cut by rule and plomb-line. These troops being liekl in reserve, were, of course, on ground much less advanced than the front of the Piussian array; but they were only 900 yards from the eye of the English General; for it was Lord Eaglan's strange and happy destiny to have ridden through saw, from the ' Great Reserve ; ' and accordingly, if the Russian accounts be accurate, the two columns mentioned in the text must have included only the four 'Volhynia' battalions. It was certainly, I believe, the impression of our oflicers that each column had a .strength of four battalions ; but without trusting blindly to the official accounts of the Russians, I am neverthe- less unwilling to cast myself loose from the guidance they offer me so far as concerns the presence or absence of particular regiments.
 * The three 'Minsk' battalions had been withdrawn, as we