Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/217

 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 191 means which would enable him to bear up against chap. any grave disaster, and hinder it from becoming _____ sheer ruin. The fortunes of the English had been checkered ; and it might be said that at this moment their prospects were a good deal overcast. Evans, still repressed by the commanding fire of the Causeway batteries, and having but three battalions to fight with, was sustaining a hard conflict, Codrington's people had been forced to relinquish their hold of the Great Eedoubt ; and the shattered remains of the battalions which stormed the work were not only descending the slope of the hill, but (as will be afterwards seen more particularly) breaking down by their bodily weight the left wing of a battalion of Guards. Finally, General Buller, on our extreme left, was in an attitude of mere de- fence. It is true that the Great Eedoubt had been dismantled — that (with the exception of the centre battalion of the Guards) our supports had not yet tried their prowess — and that the bare apparition of our Headquarter Staff on the knoll was putting a heavy stress on the enemy. It is true, also, that there was one English regiment still fighting with a Eussian column. All else had of late gone ill. XXVII. This was the condition of things when Lord Eaglan's sudden, vehement longing for ' a couple ' of guns' received its happy fulfilment. Captain