294 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP. I. His retreAt not molested by French infantry: KiriakofiTs artillery. In their retreat the Taroutine battalions — the troops which marched in what was then the rear of Kiriakoff' s force — were plied with the fire of cannon, but were not at all vexed by French infantry.* General Kiriakoff' s retreating artillerymen were not called upon to fend off a pursuit, but they seized what they judged an apt moment for facing about to plant some guns in battery, and we shall presently witness their lire reaching back to the Telegraph Height. had taken place in front of tlic English, and he was the actual ordainer of the reti'ograde movement which he deemed to he the necessary consequence of the defeat which his countrymen had sustained at the hands of our people. It may he said that it was for his interest to make this statement, and that there- fore he is not an impartial witness. This is true : but, lesides that his character for honour and high spirit places him above the suspicion of gross and intentional misstatement, it happens that his account is corroborated in the most distinct terms by AnitchkofT, an apparently impartial narrator. Anitchkoff, when he wrote, was an officer on the General Staff of the Rus- sian army, writing under circumstances which gave him con- siderable means of knowing the truth, and which made it his duty to hold the balance eveidy between GortschakofT, Kiria- koff, and Kvetzinski ; yet in clear words he corroborates Kiria- koff. After speaking of the centre and right wing of the Rus- sians — the troops with which the English had been dealing — and of their retreat ' to the former position two versts to the ' south,' he adds immediately these words : ' Whither they ' were ' [remark the word presently coming] ' whither they were ' followA by the left wing, who had withstood and repelled the ' attack of the whole of the four French Divisions until the ' moment of the general retreat. '
- Chodasiewicz. This writer was a field-officer in the Tar-
outine corps, and his statements (almost all of them valuable) ere an excellent authority in all that relates to the operations of his own regiment
