Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/371

 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. '349 Cavalry incurred, and possibly, also, by visible chap. signs of hesitation in the counsels of the Allies, ' Liprandi began to reverse his movement of re- treat. The Odessa battalions countermarched to the ground from which they had been withdrawn, and some additional troops were established on the line of the Causeway Heights. For reasons based on the difficulty of holding a wide extent of ground in the plain of Balaclava, the Allies determined to acquiesce in Liprandi's conquest of the redoubts ; and with that decision — though vain shots were afterwards fired — the battle came to an end. In ground the Allies lost the outer line of The loss of ground defence which the English by the aid of the sustained ° J by the Turks had provided for Balaclava; and with it, Aiiias. they so lost their freedom of action in the country they had made bold to invade, as to be thence- forth confined during several months within very narrow limits, and that, too, with great strictness. They remained, of course, in the occupation of the whole of the Chersonese ; but there was a ques- tion, as we shall hereafter see, of actually aban- doning Balaclava; and although the proposal to that effect was ultimately discarded by the Allies the scope of their dominion on the land side of the place became so contracted as only to include the marine heights on our right, and just so much ground in front of the place as was necessary for maintaining its communications with the Cher- sonese by the way of ' the Col.'