Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/100

 70 SKBASTOPOL OX THE AFTKliNOON' CHAP. Katcliii ; but alUioiiLrh it would be an eivov to IV JO ' suppose that the spirit of the Ilussiau soldiery si.indon vas cvushcd by the defeat it had suffered, it is llieKatclia; ' n fc i -n i not the less certain that the loss oi ofhcers kiIkmI and wounded in the battle was greater than could be well borne, and that, from this and other causes, the army was for the moment in a dis- organised and helpless slate, nnd giving Priucc jMentscliikoff therefore dismissed the t'j Todiebeii. idea of making a stand on the Katcha, and imagined a plan which (supposing that the ground should prove lit for the purpose) was well adapted to the object of enabling the army, though defeated and inferior in numbers, to tiy to cover Sebastopol. The lUissian Commander proposed to take up such a position in the country of the Belbec as would enable him to menace the left flank of the Allied army whilst engaged (as he assumed that it presently would be) in attacking the Star Fort, and at the same time allow him to communicate freely by his rear with the great road through Baktchi Seriii to the interior of liussia. With this view, he now entrusted to Colonel de Todleben the task of surveying the countiy on the morrow, and trying to find a ground upon which it would be prudent for the army to take up a position. At ten o'clock at night, KornilofF was once The sounds moi'e in Sebastoi)ol. As there heard, the sound Lttieat of the firing at half-past one had come from the e as Olio . ^^^^ ^^ ^j^^ position on the Alma, had gradually rolled to the eastward, at half-past four had