Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/101

BATTLE OF TIIH ALMA. 75 for the Allies. The duty of ci'owuing the West CIIAP. Clifi'had been fulfilled with great spirit and de- spatch by a small body of men ; but the step had not been followed np. Bouat, filing slowly round near the sea with some nine thousand men, but without guns, was for the time annulled. Bos- quet, with one brigade, stood halted upon the heights which he had climbed ; and though, lia])pily, he had not been assailed by infantry, his advanced and isolated position had become a source of weakness to the Allies. Of the two French divisions charged with the duty of attack- ing the front and western flank of the Telegraph Hill, the one had its foremost battalions high up the steep and on the verge of the open ground at its top, whilst the other M'as all do^^•n in the valley ; but (although in different ways, and for different reasons) these divisions were both hang- ing back, and no French force had hitherto at- tacked any part of the ground held by the enemy's formed battalions. Meanwhile the bat- teries still swept the smooth approach to the table-land wdiere the Telegraph stood, and not only kept it free of all assailants, but, pouring their fire over the heads of their own soldiery, were able to throw plunging shots into the midst of Prince Napoleon's Division. All this while, the English army had been kept under the fire of the Paissian artillery ; and al- though the men had been ordered to lie down, the ground, sloping towards the river, yielded no shelter, and many ha-d been killed and wounded.