Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/91

 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 65 some shots from the distant guns which Kiriukoff chap. had placed looking seaward on the Telegraph L^ Height ; and the annals of the French artillery record with pride that the twelve pieces which Bosquet brought up with him engaged and over- uosquet powered no less thau forty of the enemy's guns, hi'mseif. Nor is this statement altogether without some- thing like a basis of trutli, for the Russians had now thirty-six pieces of artillery on the West Cliff, or tlio Telegrapli lieiglit ; * and though most of them at this time were so placed that their gunners could attempt some shots at a more or less long range against Bosquet's guns, the French artillerymen not only held their ground without having a gun disabled, but soon pushed forward their batteries to a more commanding part of the plateau. By this time, the seven battalions of infantry which Prince Mentschikoff had been moving flank -wise were very near to the spot where their General had been eagerly awaiting them; but when at last, after agonies of impatience, he was about to have these troops in hand, the Prince seems to have come to the conclusion that, after all, he could do nothing in the part of the field to which he had dragged them. He was brought, perhaps, to this belief by seeing that the French and the Turks, who had been crossing the river at its mouth, were now beginning to show their strength towaids the westernmost part heavy 8-gun battery of the Don Cossacks had not yet come up. VOL. UL E
 * They had that number even u[)on the supposition that the