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BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 301 ill heavy masses talking all at the same time. chap. The aide-(le-canip was accompanied by Vico, the French Commissioner accredited to the English Headquarters. Vico conveyed Lord Eaglan's wishes to the General commanding the brigade, and was told in answer that the troops would advance. This, however, they did not do. The similar request which Colonel Steele ad- dressed to St Arnaud was met by a refusal. The jNIarshal excused himself for declining to advance by saying that his troops had left their knapsacks in the valley below. Marslial St Arnaud was able to remain all day st Arnaud. Dn horseback ; and it does not appear that the to which" state of his health at this time was such as to was brought hinder him from using his intellectual powers ; the battle. but he did not place himself in a part of the field from which a general could hope to be able to govern events; and from the time when he dis- patched his ill-devised orders to the 4th Division, I have not been able to perceive that his mind at all touched the battle. XLI. General Foray, perhaps, had hoped that in the xiie ground presence of the enemy he might be able to cover For^^vith over the mark which his reputation contracted on brig.aae. the 2d of December — on the day when, along with Maupas's commissaries of police, he suffered him- self to be publicly used as the assailant and the jailer of the unarmed legislature of France ; but if