Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/533

 SEQUEL TO INKEltMAN NAllUATIVE. 489 fioite value for England, because her people are chap, commonly and perforce obliged to combat few '_ against many, 4. As regards the quality disclosed by our Quality of officers and men, their achievements speak best, officers and __ . . men. Mere narrative supersedes praise. No one, no two, no three of the stated condi- tions could well have sufficed, but a fortuitous combination of the four brought about the results we have witnessed. The despatch of the forces hurried forward for Magnitude his Inkerman enterprise formed no small part of results that the exhausting effort by which the Czar at this foifoweda , • p J • 1 • T • -, • Russian time was last crippling ins empire ; but it must victory at, ^ , .,.,,, Inkerman. be owned that, it the stake he adventured was heavy, the one that he played for was vast. A victory won by Eussia on Mount Inkerman would have placed her at once in great strength upon the toplands of the Chersonese, and the Allies must then have been brought into so ugly a plight that, except by at once contemplating the very worst, it is hard to imagine the stage where their progress towards ruin would have stopped. From the opposite event — the event which rheAUius really occurred — it has been judged that the fro^n^any" Allies might have obtained great results ; for vfc^ry aTa. the blow fell with terrible weight, not only upon greater end; the discomfited troops, but also upon the garri-