Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/135

 BATTLE OF TIIK ALMA. 109 a brigade of tlic line. Willi tlio quickness of a CHAP, man acciistonied to hunting, ho found a spot 1_ where the bank was practicable, and, facing it obliquely, his small white Arab with two or three strides carried him to the summit. From the spot he thus reached the enemy's skirmishers had withdrawn ; * and Codrington, with the few soldiers who had already been able to gain the top, was alone upon this part of the hill - side. Looking up the smooth, gentle slope, he had be- fore him the Great Eedoubt ; but for the moment the mouths of the heavy guns which armed it remained black and silent. On his right front he saw a body of infantry massed in column. The men, in their long, grey, sombre coats, stood formed with great precision and rigidly still ; but right and left of the mass there was a chain of skirmishers so placed on the flanks of the column as to be abreast of its front rank. The troops close in rear of the body in front could hardly be seen, for they were almost hidden by the dip of the ground ; but the crest M'as fringed with spark- ling light, and the light was light playing upon the bayonet-points of battalions massed in the hollow. Our troops were yearning to be commanded ; and if the men, far and near, could have seen that the horseman on the small white Arab above them was a general officer, they would have looked to every wave of his arm for a guiding signal ; but it was under the guns — the guns of the Great Ecdouht— from which the enemy was about to open fire on our troops.
 * I imngiiic that they were withdrawn from the spot because