Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/133

 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 107 To keep the men iinder this lire for many CHAP, minutes, and to keep them, too, standing all the time in unresisting masses, would be to lose a brigade. The only order received by General Codrington had been obeyed to the full. He had no time to seek guidance from his Divisional General Clearly there was come upon him one of those rare conjunctures in which a career is made to hinge upon the decision of a moment. His father was that Admiral whose achievement at Navarino had been a link in the chain of events which now brought the son in arms for the Sultan's cause. And any one who loved our navy, even to jealousy of the land service, might persuade him- self that the bright, ardent, straightforward glance, and the bold, decisive speech of the Coldstream officer, must have come by inheritance from a sailor. He had the tightly closed lips, bespeak- ing an obstinate man who lives a life undistracted by breadth, and diversity of views. And much of what he seemed he was— a firm, plain soldier, not liable to be bent from the simple path by refined or complex views. He could not see far without the help of the glass which he kept attached to his cap, but he was more alive to the world around him than near-sighted men often are. He had never before been in action. He could not suffer his troops to remain for another minute a heli)less crowd under heavy fire. He knew not how he could withdraw them to any ground apt for manoeuvring ; and it Mas hardly possible for him to exert such a control over the