Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/411

 TLAX OF THE FLANK MAliCIL 385 one stroiiii- reason for discarding; the plan was, CHAF. that if the Allied army should once turn aside to ' make a circuitous march, instead of going on straight with its purpose against the Star Fort, it would lose a great deal of that priceless momentum which the victory of the Alma had given it. Again, the configuration of the ground in the neighbourhood of the INIackenzie Heights was of such a kind that if, as was proposed, the Allies should march round to Balaclava and the Cher- sonese with the whole of their forces, they would so forfeit their freedom of action that (except by undertaking a second invasion) it would become impracticable for them, however strong they might be, to press upon the enemy by offensive opera- tions in the field.* Shut back in a narrow dis- trict, they would be liable to undergo the attacks of the Eussian Commander whenever he might find it convenient to assume the offensive, and yet would be debarred from exercising a corres- ponding power themselves. The invaders had no acquaintance with the country into which they were going, except what they got from their map ; f and although, so far as it went, this guide was not an unfaithful one, the language of the en- graver, who represented with lines and shading the spring of 1855, when, in the hope of finding an escape from the almost intolerable predicament in which the Allies had placed themselves, the French Government wns about to under- take a fresh invasion of the Crimea. + A reprint, under the auspices of Major Jervis, of the map prepared by the Russian Government. vol,. II r. 2 B
 * This, as we shall hereafter see, was effectually proved in