eleven o'clock
So they were drawn farther and farther away from the beleaguered city , while their agile enemies , still keeping within their six-mile range , evaded their shells , and yet kept up a constant discharge of their own projectiles upon the salient points of the attack on London . By four o'clock in the afternoon all the batteries of the besiegers had been put out of action by the aërial bombardment . It was now a matter of man to man and steel to steel , and so the gage of final battle was accepted , and as dusk began to fall over the beleaguered city , the Russian , French and Italian hosts left their lines , and descended from their vantage ground to the assault on London , where the old Lion at bay was waiting for them with claws bared and teeth grinning defiance . The force which the Tsar had detached to operate against the Federation Army of the North left the headquarters at eleven o'clock , and proceeded in four main divisions by Edmonton , Chingford , Chigwell , and Romford . The aerostats , regulating their speed so as to keep touch with the land force , maintained a position two miles ahead of it at three thousand feet elevation . Strict orders had been given to press on at the utmost speed , and to use every means to discover the Federationists , and bring them to an engagement with as little delay as possible ; but they marched on hour after hour into the dusk of the early winter evening , with the sounds of battle growing fainter in their rear , without meeting with a sign of the enemy . As it would have been the height of imprudence to have advanced in the dark into a hostile country occupied by an enemy of great but unknown strength , General Pralitzin , the Commander of the Russian force , decided to bring his men to a halt at nightfall , and therefore took up a series of positions between Cheshunt , Epping , Chipping Ongar , and Ingatestone .