Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/190

 164 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP. Oppressed by this belief, Russian officers -would . be left to think that if they stood bound to pro- vide against the possibility of losing their guns, the time they had for saving them was beginning to run very short. The divisional general who was in command on the Kourgan^ Hill does not allege that he had any autliority from Prince Gortschakoff or from the commander of the forces to remove the guns which armed the Great Eedoubt. What he says is, that the defeat of the Kazan battalions by the English troops left the battery exposed, and necessitated its withdrawal.* General Kvet- zinski, however, was the master of sixteen prime battalions, of which twelve were at this time un- touched. At the time when the order must have been given for the removal of the guns, the defeat which one of his Kazan columns had sustained was nothing which, in the eyes of a man so firm as he was, would seem to justify despair.*}- Yet ' of En.L^lish troops were directing their steps towards the regi- ' ment of the Grand Duke Michael (the Kazan regiment). The ' batteries of our first lines began firing violently. Shells and ' missiles worked their bloody way tlirough tiie lines of the ' enemies, but they immediately re-formed their lines, and, ' under cover of a strong line of bayonets and their battery then ' standing behind the smoky ruins of IJourliouk, they hastened ' to force their way over the ford in order to reach the breast- ' work. The Kazan regiment bravely met them, but, tormented ' number of the enemy. The battery, being thus left exposed, ' was obliged to move.' + Up to the same time when Kvetzinskl dismantled the re-
 * Tliis is what Kvetzinski says : ' During this time masses
 * by the destroying fire of the enemy, and having lost a fright-
 * ful amount of men, was obliged to give way under the superior