6 THE BAri'LE OF INKKRMAN. CHAP. That same morrow, however, thus chosen by the ' Allied commanders was destined to be seized by an adversary who well understood that, to inter- cept their attack by a battle, he needs must be prompt.* IV. Position of With tlic cxceptlon of the troops which guard- the Allied i i i t i i ¥-> i armies. cd tlic lieadquartcr camps and the two trench ports of supply, the infantry forces of the Allies were extended in a much -bending line which rested on the sea near Streleska Bay, ran parallel with the bend of the Sebastopol defences till it reached the Careenage Eavine, then — carried all at once towards the north — was made to enfold half Mount Inkerman within its network of pickets, then turned back again southward along the crest of the Sapoun^ Eidge, held on along the edge of the topland in the trace of the re- entering angle which marks the pass by the Col, then descended abruptly from the Chersonese, stretched eastward in front of Kadikoi, and ended with the defences of Balaclava.^* Thoirieft. The left of this extended line was formed by the three divisions of the French siege-corps under General Forey. Of those three powerful bodies, the one lying most to the eastward was the divi- sion of Prince Napoleon, and accordingly that was a force which might be called upon for ser-
- ' Lcs forces de la defense an 4feinc ba.stion [i.e., the ' Flag-
• stafT l?a.stioii] toucliaient h, leiir aj^onie.' — Todleben, p. 435. + See the ]il;ui facing p. 20.
