Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/60

 30 TIIH FLANK MARCH. CIIA P. II. their for- bearance. Tlic choice offered to Lord Rag- lan. landing-place swarmed with bu.sied men, and the little street overflowed with the red-coated soldiery, it was evident that l^alaclava was too diminutive to bear being divided between the French and the English. If the place was to be assigned to one of the two armies in exclusion of the other, the French were entitled to say, that in the Allied lino they had hitherto taken the right, and that unless the precedence so conceded were to bo withdrawn from them, Bala- clava must needs be theirs, because it was the eastermost of all the possible landing-places on this part of the coast, and the Allies, when arrayed against Sebastopol, would have to face tovards the north. The French acted, however, with great for- bearance; and nothing, indeed, could be fairer than the course General Canrobert took.* He justly represented that the French had hitherto had the right side on the Allied line, and that, of necessity (on account of the position of the place), the army Avhich Avas to be on the right must have Balaclava as the port of supply which would be in its immediate rear ; but seeing the English already installed in the port and the town, and inferring that to call upon them to move out and make way for the French would be likely to create ill blood, he generously and wisely pro- posed to give Lord Uaglan his choice. Either Lord Ihiglan might continue, as before, to take this time acccJeil to the coiniiiaml of the Freiu-h aviny. _^
 * General Canroltert, as will be aftenvanls stateil, bail at