Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/199

 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 173 a gap left in the enemy's line of battle till he had chap. approached thus closely to the very rearmost of ! Prince MentschikoffB forces. Russian Reserves. Lj 'bb a y Causeway -Td ,, batteries, a^ ^ ^~^ + — + ^ D O Bulk, of Russian Army. English Army. French Army. All this — now told with labour of words — Lord Eaglan saw at a glance, and at the same moment he divined the fatal perturbation which would be inflicted upon the enemy by the mere appearance of our Headquarter Staff in this part of the field. The knoll, though much lower than the summit of the Telegraph Height, stood out bold and plain above the Pass. It was clear that even from afar the enemy would make out that it was crowned by a group of plumed officers ; and, Lord Kaglan's imagination being so true and so swift as to gift him with the faculty of knowing how in given circumstances other men must needs be thinking and feeling, it hardly cost him a moment to infer that this apparition of a few horsemen on the spur of a hill was likely to govern the enemy's fate. It would not, he thouglit, occur to any Pais- iiis instant sian fjeneral that fifteen or twenty Staff officers, sionoftue ° -^ advantage whetlier French or English, couki have reached gained: the knoll without having thousands of troops close