Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/483

 THE MAIN FIGHT. 439 owe his salvation to their forbearance, it is hard chap. to see by what prowess he coiihl escape a crush- ^^- illg disaster. Ilh Period. But happily for him the Fiench still respected Befusaior their foe though defeated, and could not be per- to take any suaued to take any part m pursuing him. Why pressing tiic the task was declined by Canrobert it would be hard to say ; for he had, as we saw, present with him some 8000 infantry — including 5000 fresh troops — with a powerful horse-artillery and 700 cavalry well accustomed to ground like Mount Inkerman ; * whilst, being the master of 40,000 effective French troops assembled in the Crimea, he could afford to lose men for a purpose.f With the English commander, as we know, it was far otherwise, but still he did not fail to pei'ceive that the vigorous pursuit of an army retreating upon difficult steeps, with cumbrous trains of artillery, might bring about signal results — perhaps even the fall of Sebastopol — and despite the exceeding scantiness of his numbers and the wearied state of his people, he desired that the Allies should press the retreat by advancing along their whole line. Speaking, as I cannot doubt, under an impulse given him by Lord Eaglan, General Pennefather proposed that the French troops on iiien with African horses. Lord George Paget, who moved in support to them with the Light Brigade, was forcibly struck with their power of moving rapidly over rough and obstructed ground. + 41,786 was the official return of Caurobert's strength on the morning of the 5 th of November.
 * They were, as we saw, the ' Chasseurs d'Afrique,' Frencli-