Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/428

 384 TIIK BATTLE OF INKERMAN. CHAP, at a ruu ; * and it was owing perhaps to this sup- ' posed need I'or actual bodily hurry that — notwith- 5th Period, standing the promise so lately made through his aide -de - camp — he suffered himself to adopt another distinct plan of action, and even to pursue it at once without first seeing Lord Raglan or communicating with General Pennefather.f There were hardly at this time any circumstances to warrant precipitate haste ; for not long after the moment when Bourbaki's flurried staff ofi&cer galloped off to ask for support, a great change, as we know, had been wrought in the state of the battle by the ascendancy of Lord Eagian's two guns ; and the enemy, though still wrestling with our soldiery at the Barrier, was exerting little and hurried forcc iu otlicr parts of the field. But the cry an isolated for help had been loud, and General Bosquet course of action. apparently still felt the impulsion it gave him. Dispensing with all English counsels, he sur- rendered himself unreservedly to the supposed exigencies which drew him towards his right front, and it was in the false direction of the Sandbag Battery that he determined to throw his weight. In that part of the field, as we know, our people — taught at last by a costly experience — had ceased to waste any fraction of their small remaining strength, and therefore General Bos- quet's resolve was one that engaged liim — though p. 136. t Pennefatlier himself iissurod me that this was so. If one did not allow for the perturbing effect of the message above men- tioned, Bosquet's omission would seem beyond measure strange.
 * At the 'pas de course.' — 'Souvenirs de la Guerre de Crimec,'