Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/453

 APPEiSDIX, 427 ' and balances the flag, which siukd with the intiejiid iion- ' commissioned ofticer struck in the forehead by a canister ' shot [une balle de mitraille]. The Hag of the 1st Zouaves ' also lloats on this glorious troj^hy, which a fragment of a ' shell breaks at the staff [flotte aussi sur ce glorieux ' trophee qu'un eclat d'obus brise a la hampe]. Lieutenant ' Poitevin, ensign-bearer of the 3yth, precipitates himself in ' his turn outside his battalion, and comes, in the midst of ' a rain of projectiles, to plant on the tower of the Tele- ' graph the eagle of his regiment ; a cannon ball [un boulet] ' strikes liim full in the breast, and stretches him lifeless. ' Every one amongst all these intrepids seemed to have in ' himself the enthusiasm of death.' That is the account which M. de Bazancourt gives, and he does not seem to have found himself cramped by the officially-admitted fact that in the whole battle the French only lost three officers killed. One of these, Lieutenant Poitevin, was struck, as Ave saw, after the Telegraph was carried, and when the Russians weie operating their re- treat ; but in the actual tight, terrific and murderous as M. de Bazancourt represents it to have been, it does not appear that any French officer was either killed, wounded, or hurt. It would seem that in 185G the feeling of the French army respecting the story of the supposed fight at the Tele- graph was not in such a state as to favour anything like a repetition of M. de Bazancourt's description, for in that year M. du Casse published his ' Precis Historique ; ' and although he describes some portions of the battle at con- siderable length, he disposes of the capture of the Tele- graph in terms which do not necessarily denote any kind of infantry fight, and in only eight words.* * The Telegraph, but his narratis'e of the taking of the Telegraph is, as I liave said, iu eight words.
 * He adds an account of llie planting of the flags on the Telegraph ;