Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/97

 KOKNII/ilF AND 'KjDLEBKX. 67 expected encounter; ami it niiglit be thought CHAP. that, since Korniloft' was within cfinnon-soimd of ! — the Allied camp, and in hourly communication with Prince Mentschikoff, he would hardly need prophecy to prepare him for the 20th of Sep- tember. Yet, in s])eaking of the reasons which made him believe that this 20th of September would prove to be the fated day, he gives the first place to the predictions of an authority — in his eyes apparently a kind of perioilical apocalypse — Avhich he calls the ' Athenian Calendar.' Two days before, he had been at Prince Mentschikoff's tent on the I^ourgand Hill, had seen the great strength of the position, and had not only ob- served the army to be in excellent spirits, but had found the Prince easy in his mind and cheer- ful. Yet now, as he rode towards the scene of action, he could not but be agitated, he says, by the thought that the fate of Europe 'was to be ' decided on Cape Loukoul or on the Alma.' By degrees he was forced to apprehend, and then to see only too plainly, the result of the encounter, ' As I approached,' he says, ' the ' firing grew slacker, and I soon perceived ' order.* A sad picture it certainly was, but the ' will of the Lord is inscrutable to us.' Amongst the troops which Korniloff and Todle- along the road descending; to the Katcha, the scene of confusion vitne3.sed hy Cliodasiewicz, and descriLcd in a fDriiier volume of this work.
 * that our army was retreating, but retreating in
 * It wa.s at a later [leriod in the day that tlicre occuircd,