Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/92

 66 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP. I. Mentschi- koff counter- aiarching. Position of Bosquet on the cliff. of the cliff; for he may not have known that this force, being without artillery, could be easily pre- vented from advancing against his batteries on the open plateau. At all events, Prince Ments- chikoff now thought it necessary to reverse his flank -movement, and to travel back towards his centre with all the forces which he had brouglit from thence to his left. But when the Prince began this last counter- movement, lie was already beginning to fall under the dominion of events in another part of the field. Bosquet now stood undisturbed on the part of tiie plateau which he had reached. But he was not without grounds for deep anxiety. It did not fall to his lot on that day to be engaged in any conflict except with the enemy's artillery ; but, from the moment when lie began to establish himself on the plateau until towards the close of the action, he was in a dangerously isolated posi- tion, for he had no troops around him except Autemarre's brigade; and, until the action was near its end, he got no effective support either from Bouat on his right or from Canrobert on his left. XIV. As soon as Marshal St Arnaud perceived that Bosquet would be able to gain the summit of the cliff, he tried to give him the support towards his left which his position, when he got established on the cliff, would deeply need; and he deter- mined that the time was come for the immediate