Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/164

 lank of tl.o l;]8 1!ATTLK OF Tlli: ALMA. CHAP, will of necessity be going on hero and there, in order to judge how best to deal with what seema to be the state of the battle in each field, each garden, each vineyard. A.iv,„,renf Still, tlic Guards descended towards the bank ' Mt' with so much of the line- formation as was per- mitted by the obstacles they had to overcome. Upon gaining the river's side, the Coldstream broke into open column of sections, in order to make the most advantage of the ford ; and wlien it reached the opposite bank it preserved its column-formation for a time, in order to march the more conveniently round an elbow there formed by the river. ^Vhen this movement was complete, the colour-sergeants went out to take ground, and the battalion opened out into line- formation M'ith all the precision and ceremony of a birthday ^eview^ On the right of this battalion, and moving with less deliberation, the Scots Fusilier Guards got through the enclosures and the river. On the right of that last corps there marched the battalion of the Grenadier Guards. The Grenadiers were a body of men so well in- structed, and so skilfully handled, that in work- ing their way through the enclosures they were able to preserve all the essential elements of their line-formation.* When they came to the bank they looked for no ford, luit, treating the river as talioTi had acted as adjntants of the regiment, and to this cir- cumstance the skill with which it was carried through the enclosures is in some measure ascribed.
 * No less tliaii seven of the officers serving with this Imt-