Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/33

 THE KIGIIT ON TIIH BKLBEC. 3 on tlicir rioht, and, at their backs, a sea and sea- chap. shore no longer friendly to them, bnt controlled. by the enemy's guns. The cause of their being cause, of in this plight M-as Marshal St Arnaud's refusal to periiici attack the Work at the mouth of the Belbec ; for if that had been taken or silenced, the attendant fleets would have approached, and the Allies, as before, woidd have been in communication with the shipjiing. Tliis not being done, the fate with which the principles of the art of war seemed to tin-eaten the Allies was — not mere discomfiture, bnt ruin. If two strategists for pastime, or for love of their art, were to wage a mimic war upon a map with |)ins and counters, the one who might find himself brought to the condition in which the Allies now lay would have to confess himself vanquished, and this notwithstanding that his counters might show him to be much the grosser in numbers. It was with better fortune that the Allies were destined to rise from their bivoiu^c on the Belbec, for they had strength of a kind which the pins and counters of the strategist rnuld hardly symbolise ; they were still under the shelter of their Wednesday's victory, and were favoured beyond common measure by the un- skilfulness of the Fiussian Commander. About two hours after midnight, there was a False alarm good deal of musketry firing in a part of the Allied line ; and when this came to be followed by the sustained roar of field-artillery, it was hard for young soldiers to avoid believing that a somewhat hot combat must be croincj on. Lord