Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/147

 BATTLK OF THE ALMA. 121 thanks to his Creator for vouclisafing to make chap. him a liardy soldier ; and being, he said, very ^ strong in the belief that he could die as piously on the battle-field as in ' a downy bed,' he pressed on, content with his 'Derbies,' to the face of the Great Redoubt. And now, whilst the assailing force was rent from front to rear with grape and canister poured down from the heavy guns above, another and a not less deadly arm was brought to bear against it ; for the enemy marched a body of infantry into the rear of the breastwork ; and his helmeted soldiers, kneeling behind the parapet at the inter- vals between the embrasures, watched, ready with their muskets on the earthwork, till they thought our people were near enough, and then hred into the crowd. Moreover, the troops on either flank of the redoubt began to fire obliquely into the assailing mass. Then, for such of our men as were new to war, it became time to learn that the ear is a false guide in the computation of passing shot ; and that amid notes sounding like a very torrent of balls, the greater part of even a crowded force may remain unhurt. The storm of rifle and musket balls, of grape and canister, came in blasts ; and although there were pauses, yet whilst a blast was sweeping through, it seemed to any young soldier, guided by the sound of the rushing missiles, that nowhere betwixt them, however closely he might draw in his limbs, could there be room for him to stand unscathed. But no man shrank. Our sol-