THE MAIN FIGHT. 337 right front in a direction for making the attack, chap. of which we shall by-and-by hear. Still latur, ' but in time to take part in their movement, the ^dreHod. last remnant of the 55th, with a strengtli of from 50 to 60 men, moved forward and aligned on the left of the men gathered under the colours of the 57th,* thus swelling a little the numbers of what we call the ' left wing.' Colonel Egertou with his 200 men of the 77th was not brought to the front at this moment ; and, omitting his force, the number of the Allies now immediately about to engage, comprised in all rather more than 1200, of whom nearly 1000 were French. So at this central part of the Ridge, where 2000 strength of Russians were about to be met first or last by combatants nearly 1200 opponents, with 200 more in support, there was not that huge disparity of numbers which had characterised the earlier fights of the morning ; but of these 1200 Allies no less than 900 were troops which we saw showing signs of weakness, whilst these, as it chanced, stood so placed as to be directly confronting the advance of the great trunk column, and were therefore apparently destined to bear the brunt of the en- counter. It seemed that the fate of the combat, carrying with it the fate of the battle, if not of the Invasion itself, might after all come to depend upon the hitherto uncertain quality of a young French battalion.-f*
- So that (see footnote, p. 315) they had the few riflemec
uuJer Try on on their immediate right. t That Penuefather himself so thouglit is shown by the ex- tract from his despatch given in the Appendix, Note X. VOL. VI. Y
