202 D'AUTEMARRE'S TROOPS.
chap, troops had a lengthened distance to traverse be-
. fore they could come into action, and the occasion
first offered by Fortune, then valiantly seized by
the brave Engineers and brave Chasseurs, might
not much longer endure.
When the French battalion of Chasseurs had
planted itself in the Faubourg, it was assailed by
General Khrouleff in person with at first only
a few score men of the regiment of Sevsk, but
presently also with one of the Pultawa battalions.*
There ensued an obstinate conflict, the Chasseurs
intrepidly doing their best to strengthen them-
selves in the houses, and the Russians on the
other hand striving to press, as it were, a small
siege against each of the occupied buildings. All
this while, too, the 80 Engineers unaided by in-
fantry were still holding fast the battery which
they had wrested from the enemy's troops.
Yet, if left unsupported, the struggles of a few
gallant men who had lodged themselves in an en-
emy's fortress could be hardly much longer main-
tained ; and on the other baud, though hitherto
baffled in all the efforts he had made to accom-
plish the object desired, General d'Autemarre was
still trying hard to reinforce the invaders.
The conflict thus drew to a crisis. If only the
reinforcements should move down and join their
we saw, they had received their orders too late, and were not
on the ground. See ante, pp. 152, 156.
- The one under Cap1 tin Born which had been driven out of
the Gervais Battery by the 80 French Engineers.
