Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/372

 34G THE HALT ox THE CHAP. Thus, then, tliu IniUle having L-iKknl before five _!lll_ o'clock on the afternoon of the 20th of September, the Allied armies remained halted on the Alma until the morning of the '2od; and when it i.s asked why, instead of thus tarrying, they did irot resume their advance on the morrow of the battle, the answer, we see, must be like to that which showed why they did not press the enemy's re- treat on the afternoon of the fight. The hinderer was Marshal St Arnaud. But the halt having once been resolved upon, it lasted two whole days instead of one, because, though the French could embark all their wounded men in one day, the number of those who lay stricken on the English part of the field was too great to allow of their being dealt with in the lesser time.* So, not- withstanding that the measure of halting on the Alma was chai'geable upon jNlarshal St Arnaud, still, on the 22d of September (having by that time got his own wounded on board), he could say, and could say with literal truth, that the Trench army was able to advance when the Kng- lish army was not. Accordingly, on the 22d, whilst the English were still toiling hard at the painful task of getting their wounded on board, the Marshal suffered himself to write: 'The ' English are not yet ready, and I am kept back, • just as at Baltchick, just as at Old Fort. It is prevented the earlier advance of the Allies : but after consider- ing the groun<ls on which that belief rested, 1 have not ac- ce^ited it.
 * By sonic it has been thought that commissaiiut dilficultiea