n. Consequently a hard-won
victory, which might easily, by energetic action, have been changed into
one of the greatest importance, proved of little use, and hardly
affected the latter part of the campaign at all. It was a lamentable
mistake, for had the Russian forces been driven pell-mell from the
field, Sebastopol might have surrendered, and thousands of brave and
valuable lives on both sides might have been saved. As it was, a
glorious victory had been achieved at great cost to British and Russians
alike, and all that could be said was that the Crimean campaign had
opened favourably for the Allies.

The victorious army that defeats one portion of the enemy's troops, and
thereby causes the whole force to retire, achieves a success which,
brilliant though it may be, is as nothing compared with that obtained
when the whole of the opposing force is hopelessly crushed and
afterwards captured or driven, a mere herd of terror-stricken beings,
from the field. For the Allies the Alma was a glorious victory, but no
more. The fact that the general and his staff were isolated from the
attacking army at the critical moment, and that in consequence the
troops advanced at wide intervals, while the reserves were never called
into action, ruined all hopes of a really great and telling success.
Had it been otherwise, had the British divisions been poured unceasingly
upon the Russians, they would have engaged the whole of Menschikoffs
great army, and so severely handled it as to hopelessly mar its future
effectiveness.

It was a sad, sad army that bivouacked that night near the river Alma.
Comrades and dear friends were missing; while the flickering lights
hovering over hill and valley showed that the search-parties were at
work, the doctors busy at their merciful and pain-relieving duties, and
the burial-parties delving to prepare huge trenches for the reception of
the dead. It was a terrible ending indeed to a glorious day, but one
that ever follows the crash and turmoil of a battle. It is impossible
to realise its sadness, its awful horror, till you stand beside one of
these trenches, and, with helmet in hand and the bright sun overhead,
read the last rites over your comrades of a few hours ago, who have been
called suddenly, and by the aid of your fellow-men, from beside you.

For two days the Allies remained here, and then, loading arabas, they
advanced by easy stages on Sebastopol. To attack the town and fortress
from