Cliasseurs: THE MAIN I'-IGHT. 389 Bosquet gave a welcome to the same I'ond belief, chap. He made to himself a false picture of the state of ' the battle-field, and imagined that he might bend ^t^.i'ericd off to the Sandbag Battery, or even to the Inker- man Tusk, without ceasing to have his leit cov- ered by the close presence of an English force.* II. Owing mainly to the stress put upon him liy Bosquets Lord Eagian's eighteen-pounder guns, the enemy oi7iTe"45o" had retracted the movement by which half an hour before he came on to press his advantage against the French 6th of the Line ; but General Bosquet, still under the sway of the message which had hurried him forward, was especially drawn on by that part of it which craved protec- tion for J3ourbaki against the column then turn- ing, or threatening to turn, his right flank. So the moment his Chasseurs came up, Bosquet ordered them to advance upon the Sandbag Bat- tery, and at the same time he directed Bourbaki to resume the offensive. By the movements resulting from these orders the enemy's skirmishers were pressed back : but the 450 Chasseurs (who had inclined towards the left of the Kitspur, instead of marching straight on the Battery) were met before long by two strong Eussian columns. The columns, whilst
- This (H-ior of Bosquet's seems the more curious wlien one
lumeinhers that the evidcucit of liis own eyesight mu.st liave tended to jruard him agiiiust it. See the last footnote.
