ADVANCE TO THE BELBEC. 353 if attacked by infantry or artillery.* The enemy chap. did not seize the occasion, and at dusk Lord Lu- ;_ can withdrew his troops to the high open ground above ; "f" but certainly during some hours, our cav- alry had been in peril. Lord Lucan had been apprised that the Eussians had had 2000 horse in the village of Duvankoi just before its occupation by our cavalry ; and when he rose from his bivouac on the morning of the 24th, he saw bodies of Eussian troops both in the direction of Sebastopol and near Mackenzie's Farm ; but he was recalled into the general line of march before the enemy's movements were yet so developed as to enable him to make out their scope and bearing. If his orders had suffered him to remain in the neighbourhood of Duvankoi, he might have found that the Eussians in force were converging upon the very ground where he stood^ and that in a village close by Prince Mentschi- koff was to establish his Headquarters. I Excepting the cavalry, which Lord Eaglan had thus pushed on a day's march in advance, the whole of the Allied array bivouacked, as we saw, on the Katcha.
- Lord Lucan seems to have thour;ht that the order to ' take
- possession of ' Duvankoi made it his duty to place his main
body in the village, and to keep it there during some 'few ' hours ;' for he speaks of the occupation of the village which he had effected and continued till di;sk as an act which had
- sufficiently carried out his instructions.'
t This last measure, as might well be expected, was fully ap- proved by Lord Raglan. Z The village of Otarkoi. It was early on the following morning that Prince Mentschikoff in person reached the village. VOL. lU. Z
