Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/272

228 THE BATTLE OF INKERJMAN. CHAP, and, unless they could he supported on their left, ' it was scarce possible for them — with all their 2dPenod. p^owess — to achievc any wholesome result. If The vice of , - „ the position they sliouki pursue the enemy down the steeps oi maintained at the Mount lukerman and into the jungle below, they Sandbag . nt^ n to Battery. w^ould ceasB to exist as an effective force. If, abstaining from such pursuit, they should go on maintaining the struggle as an isolated fight, they would be every minute consuming their strength without either crushing their immediate adver- saries or perturbing other portions of the enemy's forces ; and besides, would be liable to find them- selves at any moment cut off by a body turning their left. So, had this been only a ' war game,' the flat slips of lead representing our troops on the Kitspur would have been long ago withdrawn by any competent player. But Lord Eaglan, of all living men, would have been one of the last to forget that the rigid dictates of science must sometimes bend to considerations of the kind which people call 'human.' From a spot near the right shoulder of the Sandbag Battery he had witnessed this singular struggle during some of Lord its phases ; and his judgment assured him that, temination. howcvcr great the imprudence of originally ac- cepting a combat in that part of the field, it was now too late to retract. It would be breaking the heart of good troops to tear them away from the fight ; and to do this without the means of enabling them to effect a steady retreat would be to embrace actual disaster in prefeience to that which as yet was only an ugly j^redicament.