Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/308

 282 BATTU: OF THE ALMA. CiiAP. The minutes it took him to ride alter the reserves ' to seek out the cause of their retreat, and to come back to the front, would be those very minutes in which the position held by the centre and the right of the llussian army was falling into the hands of the English. hisie- Tliis, I repeat, is only a conjectural mode of in the Eiig- filling tlic chasui which is left open bv the llus- lisli part of. °, , , , " -n. • thefitid. siau narrators; but the spot wiiere the 1 rince is found when he reappears in the eye of History, is exactly the one in which those who adopt my surmise would expect to see him riding. For it was by the great road, where his reserves had been posted, that Prince MentschikofF came back into that part of the field with which the Eng- lish had dealt. When last he saw it, the posi- tion, immensely strong by nature, was held in the grip of powerful batteries, and battalions stand- ing ri'dd as granite. Since that time, it is true, some hours had passed, but it was only a few minutes before that he had been the assailant in the other part of the field, placing a migiity column in the hands of Kiriakoff with orders to make an onslaught upon Canrobert's Division. Now — he gazed, and gazed again, being slow to understand — being slow to let in the belief — that the grey, rolling masses which approached him were the ruins of two - thirds of his army. But presently he came upon a sight hardly less strange, hardly less shocking to him, than his iHsmeeUng retreating soldiery. He met on the road a with Gorta-. , »• i n • chikotr:^ lone man — a lone man on toot, walking away