Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/441

 THE MAIN FIGHT. 397 also, except the oue gun we saw captured, found chap. means to make good its escape. ' The column, liowever, meanwhile (it was oue of ^^^ ^"'""' the lakoutsk ])attalions) moved up unopposed to the crest, and was presently on the left flank of the French still extended along the Inkermau Tusk And now, too, that same French array was threatened in another direction. From the time when they came into action the vSelinghinsk battalions had tenaciously clung to the Kitspur, ascending sometimes to the Sandbag Battery, then undergoing discomfiture and lapsing back under the steeps, but always after a while proving able to stay their retreat and make ready for another attempt. It so happened that at this very time they were in one of their ascending moods ; and when their skirmishers once more toiling up towards the Sandbag Battery looked over their right shoulders across St Clement's Gorge, they found themselves gazing upon the rear of a little force drawn up in order of battle. They were looking, in fact, on the rear of that singular array which Bosquet's infantry formed along the Inkerman Tusk. Perceiving the oppor- tunity oifered them, they bent to their right, and began to operate against the rear of the troo}>s on the other side of the gorge. Still the gravest of the perils encompassing Bosquet's troops on the Tusk was the one which officei, and did not at the moment comjireliend that the circnm- stance of Bosquet's being a hostile general might constitute an exception to the rule.