Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/96

 74 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA CHAP I. Jabrokrit^ sky's force. Liprandi secure for the time against any attack by infantry: the period of licence thus en- joyed by him. of the Causeway Heights, and its right on the Fedioukine Hills. Nor was Liprandi's little army the only force with which the Allies would now have to cope, for Jabrokritsky, having descended from the Mac- kenzie Heights, was debouching from the Tractir road, and preparing to take up a position on the slopes of the Fedioukine Hills. These Russian forces had no pretension to match themselves against the troops which the Allies on the Chersonese could, sooner or later, send down for the relief of Balaclava ; but, on the other hand, it was certain that a long time must elapse before the infantry despatched from the upland could be brought into action against the assailants of Bala- clava; and the configuration of the ground was such, that every French or English battalion en- gaged in its descent from the Chersonese could be, all the while, seen by the enemy. Liprandi, therefore, could act at his ease ; and it was for no trifling space of time that this privileged security lasted. He perhaps under-reckoned the probable duration of the licence which he thus might enjoy ; but the actual result was, that from the seizure of Canrobert's Hill to the moment when the Allies were ready to come into action, there elapsed a period of some three hours.* So, although the moment might come when, by it was half-past ten before the Allies had any of their infantry <m I'm cements so far in advance as to be ready to undertake an attack.
 * Canrobert's Hill is stated to have been taken at 7. 30, and