Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/179

 BATTLE OF THE AT,MA. 153 side, and misgiving on the other, there liaJ come chap. to be a strange pause ; vet not along the whole ' line ; for, either with a part of the Yladimir column or else with some other body of troops, two or three of the companies of the 33d were exchanging at this time a sharp fire. The men of the column took the fancy of pouring the main volume of their shot towards the ground where the colours of the 33d were upraised. The col- ours were new ; and, as though the mere richness of their crimson folds were enough to draw the eye and the aim of the Russian musketeer, they were riddled in two or three minutes with num- bers of balls. Of those who stood near them a large proportion were struck down.* General Codrington, seeing that the fruits of the exploit performed by his brigade were going to be lost for want of supports, had already sent his aide-de-camp, Campbell, to press the advance of the Scots Fusilier Guards, the battalion most directly in his rear. But the very moments then passing were the moments charged with the result, and there were no other and later moments that could ever be used in their stead. It is said — but my faith in men's impressions of what passed at this minute is M-anting in strength — it is said that one of the heavy columns which the enemy had on his extreme right was can identify with the combat in which a part of the 33d was engaged, and I have not been able to say which of the Russian corps it was with which the 33d was at this time exchanging fire.
 * I do not see anything in the Russian narratives which I