THE MAIN FIGHT. 229 Still, if our people were to go on maintaining chap. their hold, it was vitally necessary to support ^^' them by the co-operation of troops on their left. "^^ Period Pennefather, with whom Lord Eaglan conferred, nee^doV^* pressed strongly in this direction, and urged the the°Gap. great need that there was to close, as he ex- pressed it, the ' Gap ' which was left open be- tween him and the Guards. Again, it was to be remembered that, though hitherto isolated, and therefore in great measure wasting their power, our people engaged on the Kitspur had inflicted, and still were inflicting, great slaughter upon the enemy; and that even now, if they could be supported on their left by a well-pressed attack, they would be not only secured against a turning movement, but at once become clothed with such power over the battle that the sacrifices our people had made might not, after all, prove bar- ren. Therefore, to give this support at the Gap was to avert a grave danger, but also perhaps to wring good out of evil, and retrieve a costly mis- take by making it conduce to victory. On the other hand, the penalty that lay in wait for the English, if they should omit to take the required step, was obvious, and closely impending. Gen- eral Danuenberg had been hitherto slow to apply the easy leverage of a turning movement ; but without providing a safeguard against such manoeuvre, our people had no right to believe that this forbearance would last. After the obdurate refusal of the two French battalions to advance in support to our troops.
