Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/247

 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 225 Even at this late moment, and after all the chap. misconception that had occurred, if Lord Lucan. had turned at last in the direction assigned to him by his written orders, he would have found himself master at once of two out of the seven captured guns, with (apparently) a rich oppor- tunity of not only securing the ulterior recovery of the two other lost redoubts and the five other English guns, but also inflicting upon Liprandi a calamitous defeat ; * for although the enemy's right wing was untouched, and although towards his left, he still held his ground from Kamara to the second redoubt, yet the means on which he had relied for connecting the head of his column with the troops of General Jabrokritsky had been ruined by the defeat of his cavalry at the hands of Scarlett's dragoons. His grasp of the field was relaxing ; and indeed it could hardly be otherwise, for now that the Allies in force were completing their descent into the plain of Balaclava, Lip- randi's continued obtrusion of troops in the direc- tion of the Causeway Heights was no longer war- ranted by his relative strength. It is distressing to be forced to learn that at uathcart this critical moment, when Fortune proffered a victory, Sir George Cathcart was still disobeying the order to ' advance immediately and recapture ' the redoubts.' He was still halted by the No. 4 Redoubt with the main body of his infantry. The Riflemen he had sent out skirmishing were, some VOL. V. P
 * See the accompanying plan, Plate 5.