Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/313

 AND PREPARING. 283 •It is the duty of mortals to Lead before it in chap. ' humility, as it is always just. . . . We con- _J — L_ ' tiiiue to work at our fortifications.' * Then ended the time during which, from mere want of battalions, the garrison had been lying at the mercy of the Allies.f By this time, moreover, Prince Mentschikoff's ^™sea^ field army began to show signs of an intention to Men^^[;|;;^ intervene once more in the campaign. Already anny: reinforced, and expecting from time to time fresh accessions of strength, | the Prince no longer stood aloof from the war by ensconcing his field army in the country of the Katcha and the Belbec, but undertook to set bounds to the dominion of the Allies in the valley of the Tchernaya. He oc- |^^;f;;;'^s«'^ Gupied Tchorgoun, a village very near to the river, and sent a force on so far south, upon the extreme right of the English, as to challenge their right of forage in the grassy vale of Baidar. As we saw, he had been reluctantly augment- Ti.e Allies ' •' *-> now out- ing the garrison upon a large scale ; and of the numbered. reinforcements promised him, the main portion was yet to come ; but still, on the evening of the 16th of October, liis field army had a strength which may be computed at 24,000. J Thus the October. t The Allies reached the ground on the south of Sebastopoi on the 26th and 27th of September, and the first succours which the Prince gave the garrison were, as we saw, the four- teen battalions which he sent into Sebastopoi on the 1st of October.
 * Private Journal, niider date of 24th September, i.e., 6th
 * J: It then apparently comprised 27 battalions, 28 squadrons,

23 sotnias of Cossacks, and 88 guns.