Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/219

 BATTLE 01' Tin: ALMA. 193 fire from the knoll, could not hold their ground; ciiAP. and in a few moments a keen-eyed officer, who .; was one of the group around Lord Eaglan, cried out Avith great joy, ' He is carrying off his guns !' And this was true. The field-pieces which formed the Causeway batteries were rapidly limbered up and dragged to another ground far up in the rear.* With the two great columns of iniantiy which it ploughs constituted the enemy's reserves it fared no better, eneiuy's reserves After not more than two failures, the L,ainner and diivM . . "^ them from got their range, and our nine-pounders ploughed thefieia. through the serried masses of the two Eussian columns, cutting Lines through and tlirough them. Yet for some minutes the masses stood firm ; and even when the still increasinij havoc at lencrth o o overruled the punctilio of those brave men, it seemed to be in obedience to orders, and not under the stress of any confusing terror, that the two great columns gave way. They retreated in good order. Our gunners then tried their pieces upon the Vladimir battalions, and although the range was too great to allow of their striking the column, they impressed Kvetzinski with a contrary belief. He was sure that these troops were reached by the guns on the knoll; and it will l)e seen by-and- of the Borodino coqis. I do not think that there were any observers on ' Lord Uaglan's knoll ' who saw guns dragged from the field by infantry ; but there were features in the ground which prevented their seeing into the line of retreat as efTectually as they had seen into the batteries. VOL. III. N
 * Kiriakoff .sa^-s that these guns were dragged off bj' the men