Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/232

202 D'AUTEMARRE'S TROOPS. chap, troops had a lengthened distance to traverse be- . fore they could come into action, and the occasion first offered by Fortune, then valiantly seized by the brave Engineers and brave Chasseurs, might not much longer endure. When the French battalion of Chasseurs had planted itself in the Faubourg, it was assailed by General Khrouleff in person with at first only a few score men of the regiment of Sevsk, but presently also with one of the Pultawa battalions.* There ensued an obstinate conflict, the Chasseurs intrepidly doing their best to strengthen them- selves in the houses, and the Russians on the other hand striving to press, as it were, a small siege against each of the occupied buildings. All this while, too, the 80 Engineers unaided by in- fantry were still holding fast the battery which they had wrested from the enemy's troops. Yet, if left unsupported, the struggles of a few gallant men who had lodged themselves in an en- emy's fortress could be hardly much longer main- tained ; and on the other baud, though hitherto baffled in all the efforts he had made to accom- plish the object desired, General d'Autemarre was still trying hard to reinforce the invaders. The conflict thus drew to a crisis. If only the reinforcements should move down and join their we saw, they had received their orders too late, and were not on the ground. See ante, pp. 152, 156. the Gervais Battery by the 80 French Engineers.
 * The one under Cap1 tin Born which had been driven out of