214 THE BATTLE OF INKEUMAN. CHAP. VI. 2d Period. The actual disposition of the fresh troops. The succours despatched to this part of the field now began to come up ; and it seems that if the Duke of Cambridge had been obeyed, the approach by the Gap would not have been left unguarded, for, with a just apprehension of what the occasion required, he ordered both Crofton's and Champion's troops to ' take post ' on the left of his Guards, and between them and the 2d Division ; * but the attraction of the strife going on by the Sandbag Battery continued to exert its old force ; and excepting Horsford's few riflemen, whose chief kept tliem somewhat more clear, all the succours now reaching the Kitspur were quickly drawn into the fight. Upon the whole it resulted that the perilous Gap still lay open, and the ground there was not only left unguarded, but even, it seems, un watched. The Coldstream battalion formed line on the right of the Grenadiers. One part of Crofton's wing of the 20th Eegiment aligned on the riglit of the Coldstream, thus prolonging yet further the front which our people showed towards the east ; and the other part went to strengthen the
- ' I confess I never saw the 20th Regiment again after the
' earlier part of the day, when I had myself directed them to ' take post to the left of the Guards, and between them and the ' 2d Division, as 1 did the 95th Regiment which followed in ' the same direction.'— Private letter of the Duke of Cambridge to Lord Raglan, written from Constantinople, 20th December 1854. The Duke speaks of the 20th and 95th Regiments, but must have meant a wing only of eacli.
