Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/444

 400 THE BATTLE OF INKEKMAN. CHAP. VI. 5(h rerinii. Their rc- indval from the Fore Ridge. The Rus- sians blind to their opportunity, and attempt- ing no jiur- suit. Caniobeit at the seat of danger : Q18 cavalry brought up : soon became evident that' if he would save his batteries from becoming disabled, Boussiniere must shift their ground. This at last he accord- ingly did. Keeping one of his batteries for op- portunities of service on the right, he sent off the other one to operate beside the English field- artillery on the left of the Home Eidge. The discomfiture suffered by Bosquet was not one that the Eussians had planned ; and having stumbled, as it were, upon Fortune, they scarce knew what they had done, still less what they ought to do next. Whether owing to the restraint put upon them by Boussini^re's guns, or from ignorance of the advantage they had gained, or from a sense of the danger they might incur if they were to push far their advance without first having captured the Barrier, they did not attempt to urge the retreat of the French infantry by a vigorous pursuit. But notwithstanding the absence of any such physical pressure, the French were swift to under- stand, and even indeed to overestimate, the re- verse that had befallen them. General Canrobert, their anxious, devoted commander-in-chief, was already at the true seat of danger — that is, the Fore Eidge — the ground on which the enemy's columns might come sweeping on in j)ursuit. As we saw, he had taken the precaution of bringing cavalry into the field ; and now, to cover the retreat of Bosquet's infantry, and avert the threatened disaster, the Chasseurs d'Afrique were brought up. Half despairing, perhaps, but stiU