Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/97

 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 75 the nearer approach of the Allies marching down cbap. from the upland, Liprandi would be reduced to j — the defensive, or else compelled to retire, yet, for the time, the Eussian General was not only secure against the contingency of being attacked by in- fantry, but also had such prey within reach as might tempt him to become the assailant. The arrival of Jabrokritsky, now debouching The forces J now threat- from Tractir, entitled Liprandi to consider that eningBaia- ' r clava. troops which had come thus near were a present accession of strength ; and, taken altogether, the Eussian troops actually under Liprandi, or near enough now to co-operate with him, were a force complete in all arms, and numbering, as we saw, some 24,000 or 25,000 men with 78 guns. Yet Tgir (now that our cavalry had been withdrawn to the foot of the Chersonese), the only field force with The forces which Sir Colin Campbell stood ready to oppose be forthwith -r-. • #» j e xr j'i ••• opposed to all these Eussian troops m front ot Kadikoi was them. a single battery of field-pieces, 400 men of the 93d Highlanders, commanded by Colonel Ainslie,* 100 invalids under Colonel Daveney, who had been sent down to Balaclava for embarkation ; and, besides, two battalions of Turks, not hitherto carried away by the ebb of the Mussulman people. for this service in front of Kadikoi ; the two remaining com- panies of the battalion being on duty, under the command of Major Gordon, in the inner line of defence. Major Gordon, however, with the force under his orders, rejoined the main body of the battalion before the moment of its encounter with the Russian Cavalry.
 * Only six companies of the regiment were at first available