Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/124

 98 BATTLK OF TIIK ALMA. CHAP, iiiain to it after rapidly passing through difficuit , enclosures. The river, though flowing in a swift current, was fordable by a strong man in most places, but it was of very unequal depth. Gen- eral Codrington was seen riding quickly across at a point where the stream hardly flowed above his horse's fetlocks, and yet, almost close to hiui, the taller charger of another officer went down and had to swim. The soldiers rapidly waded across. Some few perished in the stream, and it was never known whether they fell from shot or from not being able to keep their footing in the cur- rent. That part of Pennefather's brigade which was ovcrlaj^ped by the Eoyal Fusiliers '^' had become entangled with the Light Division ; and at the moment of Codrington's advance, Hume of the 95th seized a colour, and, dashing across the river, carried with him the left wing of the regiment; but the men bore so much towards their left, that by the time they gained the foot of the bank on the Eussian side of the river, they had become blended, not (as might be supposed) with the right, but with the left regiment of Cod- rington's brigade. They were destined to share the glory and the carnage which awaited the 23d Fusiliers. At length the whole Light Division, together with the additional force under Hume which had strayed into its company, was upon the Eussian side of the river ; but as yet, the troops only stood • i.e., after tlic Fusiliers had marclicd through the 95th.