Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/79

EVE OF Till'; ACTION. 35 hour of daylight in straining after all such know- chap. ledge of the enemy's plans as might be attained '__ by the eye and the tield-glass. Pursuing his daily custom on the afternoon of the 4th of November, he rode to the crest of Shell Hill ; and thence not only saw stil'l continuing on the Old City Heights those signs of activity and swollen numbers which before had been marked, but also descried there a small, yellow object, which attracted and detained his attention. What he saw was indeed nothing more than a simple caliche ; but, although without means of knowing that this was the carriage which had brought two sons of the Czar to take part in great things on the morrow, he yet imagined • that the arrival of a traveller at such a time might have military significance ; and becoming more than commonly anxious to probe the enemy's designs, he despatched Captain Carmichael, a highly skilled officer, who well knew the ground, to the extreme point of the Inkerman Spur, with instructions to be there half an hour before dark and report in person to the General any ap- pearance of movement or alteration of position on the part of the enemy. Carmichael obeyed ; but after completing a laboured survey (which the Ilussians, though usually jealous, did not care, at this time, to disturb), neither he nor Major Grant, who was with him, could detect any military change, except the establishment of a fresh body of cavalry on the right bank of the river between the Tractir and the Inkerman