Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/149

 WIIKN ABANDONED PA' THE A.i;MY. 119 Gendre (who was one of them) represented that chap lliey would all be Litterly mortified at the notion L_ of being parted from their chief in the hour of danger, the Adnural clung to his desire. 'I ' should not like,' he said, ' to see all fall with ' me ; ' and he then proceeded to assign to his Staff some duties which would detain them, all except one, on the South Side. The mornino- of the 25th brought with it no The morning " ., . ,, . of the '25lh signs of the expected advance of the Allies against the Star Fort; but, as though to add to the helplessness of the people abandoned in Sebastopul, Prince Mentschikoff had left them without the cavalry required for reconnoitring the enemy : and it seems that the garrison re- nuiined unacquainted with the momentous opera- tion in which the Allies were, that day, engaging, until it was almost noon. And then, strange to say, they learnt the truth without seeking it. They learnt it as a man learns some incident with which he has no concern, by chancing to look out of window. From that Xaval Library of which we have The sight. •^ acciJeutaUy heard as standing upon a high knoll in the town observed CI i- '=> _ from the of Sebastopol and commanding a far-reaching ^^^ view, some officers extended their gaze towards a quarter not hitherto thought of as the probable scene of any English or French operations. They looked towards the heights overhanging the head of the roadstead. There, scarlet and glittering under a bright noontide sun, they saw regiments and regiments of the English soldiery moving up