Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/464

 420 THK 15ATTLE OF INKERMAI^. CHAP. Had no reinforce in euts been inovided ? Yes, '__ lavislily. Eeinforcements stood ready to the m Period. nunil)er of more than 20,000, and were, some of them, so near at hand as to be within slionting distance; but the hitherto inflexible Plan had, up to this time, interposed, and in strictness no doubt it was true that having failed to lay open a path of ascent for Prince Gortschakoff by driv- ino- back f)ur men to the Windmill, General Dannenberg had not entitled himself to the suc- cour of even one fresh battalion. Still he evi- dently did not imagine that the predicament in which he was placed had remained unobserved or unheeded. Prince Mentschikoff was present in person at a distance of only a few hundred yards; communication with the Tcheruaya valley was practicable ; and, upon the whole, General Dan- nenberg could not, and did not, believe that Gortschakoff would really forego the opportunity Dannen- of placing the AUics between two fires. What he attiifs°tirae. hoped, accordingly, was, that he might be able to hold his ground on Mount Inkerman, until the happy moment when the Allied troops now ranged in his front should be compelled to move off by the pressure of Gortschakoff's troops on their flank and right rear. Then, he might well believe, victory would be assured. On the other hand, Dannenberg was fighting with declivities at his back ; and what above all else in the world he had to dread, was the contingency of being at- tacked, and defeated, and fiercely pursued on Shell Hill ; for then the result to him and his