I could think so," replied Canrobert.

"Well, but listen to the message my aide-de-camp has brought from
General Pennefather. What did he say, Calthorpe?"

"General Pennefather, my lord, says he only wants a few fresh troops
to follow the enemy up now, and lick them to the devil. These are his
very words, my lord."

Lord Raglan laughed heartily, and translated his stout-hearted
lieutenant's language literally for Canrobert.

"Ah! what a brave man!" cried the French general, lighting up. "A
splendid general, a most valiant man."

"You see now, general; one more effort and the day is ours. Won't you
help?"

"But, my lord, what can I do? The Russians are all round us still, and
in great strength. See there, there, and there," he cried, pointing
with his unwounded arm.

"Tell General Pennefather to come and speak to me at once," Lord
Raglan now said to the aide-de-camp, hoping that the gallant bearing
of the victorious veteran would infuse fresh hope in Canrobert.

Now General Pennefather galloped up, as radiantly happy as any
schoolboy who has just finished his fifteenth round.

"I should like to press them, my lord. They are retreating already,
and we could give a fine account of them."

"What have you left to pursue with?" asked Lord Raglan, still hoping
to encourage the French to undertake the offensive.

"Seven or eight hundred now, in the first brigade alone."

"To pursue thousands!" exclaimed Canrobert, when this was interpreted
to him; "you must be mad! I will have nothing to do with this; we have
done enough for one day."

Now again, as on the Alma, when the heights had been carried by storm,
the fruits of victory were lost by our unenterprising, over-cautious
allies.

This, indeed, is the true story of Inkerman, as told on incontestable
evidence of the great historian of the war. The French did not rescue
the English from disaster; they were themselves repulsed. At the close
of the action, when they might have actively pursued, their
irresolution robbed the victory of its most decisive results.

It was a terrible and far too costly victory, after all. The English
army, already terribly weak, suffered such serious losses in the fight
that there were those who would have at once re-embarked the remnants
and raised the siege. Retreat on the morrow of victory would have been
craven indeed, but to stand firm with such shattered forces was a bold
and hazardous resolve, for which Lord Raglan deserves t