102 ('(JMIJATS ON THE lNKKK.MAN Sl'UU. C H A P. V. MllWlllI'llt l.y Colonel under Bo quet's orders. His over- throw of the two Moronm battalions ; 400 Russian! surrender- Ing. eastward or westward, between the Faubourg and de "Whit" !.'.-:< rtlbts might give him a good op- portunity of, striking ,them in Hank or in rear, TnncM,),' und6r«'kis orders Lieutenant-Colonel Larrouy d'Orion with two French battalions had moved down along the deep bed of the Careenage Ravine till he came to the viaduct, and had then clambered up the right bank of the gorge to a lair from which he might strike at the front, the Hank, or the rear of any Russian troops moving to or from the Redoubts in either advance or retreat. The two ill-fated Russian battalions had already passed over the viaduct, and were ascending the path up Mount Inkerman which led towards their goal, when all at once Colonel d'Orion with his agile French force sprang up the hillside in their rear, seemed intent to cut them off from Sebas- topol, and threw them into confusion. They turned, and strove to get back the way they had come, and their movement to the rear was after- wards represented to Todleben as 'opening a way ' with the bayonet.' Of what fighting really took place we sec indeed one painful trace — for the brave Colonel d'Orion received a mortal wound ; but, so far as concerned nearly half, or more strictly four-tenths of the enemy's force, there resulted nothing short of surrender. Four hun- dred of the Russians, including twenty officers, were content to be taken prisoners by Colonel d'Orion's force*
- Niel, p. 20G. By Todleben (who wrote long afterwards)
the statement is not called in question.
