Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/126

 96 EVASION OF 'MENTSCIIIKOFF AKI) HIS CHAP, they could be carried throngli by the ])crsonal . boldness of a few men, and without ex]')osing great masses to have their coherence tested. The con- juncture was such that, by reason of their effect in challenging and delaying a force to which long delay would be fatal, the smallest successes of the assailants might be fraught with great results; and it is to be observed, too, that there was a col- lateral advantage deriving from attacks of this sort, to Vv'hich the Prince might have looked : for experience has taught that a series of even the pettiest triumphs, down even to those which may be won over stragglers and drivers of waggons, is of actual, nay even great worth as a means of re- storing self-i'cspect and confidence to troops which have suffered disaster. Although the Allies encountered no sort of resistance, it cost them, as we saw, a painful march from morning to midnight, and again an- other marcli the next day, to traverse the ridge which divided the Belbec from the Tclicrnaya ; but if Prince Mentschikoff, perceiving and using the power which fortune offered him, had so wielded his army as, from time to time, to con- strain the invaders to prepare a front, and gather their means of resistance, the duration of their perilous march must have been proportionately lengthened; and they were forces to which despatch was life, for they had abandoned, as we know, their old base of operations, and were travelling by map and compass in hope of finding another. It would seem that even slight ventures under-