Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/102

70 FKENCH NIGHT ATTACK chap, the left — Russian left — of the growing redoubt. ' To meet the stress of battle brought thither, the unengaged column of the Volhynia regiment was by Khroustchoff moved laterally from his right towards the ground on his left where the Rus- sians were most hotly pressed. Before long, it resulted that the four Volhynia battalions with some men of the Selinghinsk intermixed became gathered irregularly in advance of the new Re- doubt and presented to their assailants a broad, concave front. Like their comrades on the right, the Zouaves on the opposite flank of the assailing force had by this time pressed forward with vigour, and a corresponding effort of will on the part of the centre column (with which General Monet was present) might perhaps have enabled the French to deliver their final assault with a great compactness and weight ; but this column was seemingly weakened by the absence of some of the men who had lost their way in the dark- ness^ 2 ) and besides, it unhappily chanced that General Monet now received several wounds. Finding himself compelled to give up the com- mand, he handed it over to Cler, who was called away from the right in order to receive his new charge. Cler, however, soon returned to his Zouave battalion, taking with him all the troops that he found on his road. Then in person going up to the Work he knocked over the gabions revetting a part of its counterscarp, crossed its