Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/248

 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. C H A P. L His ]i!iiIiosal )ejt:ctetl l.y the Grenadier Guards. Continued advance of the Grenadiers ; the Guards; ?o he sent to the Greiiadievs to know if they would like troops to come up to fill the empty space. The answer was a proud one. It was also, perhaps, a rash answer ; fur the Vladi- mir column — compact and strong, with a sense of the power it had just put forth — was not only impending over the left front of the Grenadiers, but also in part confronting the vacated interval. However, the answer was ' No ! ' and the Grena- diers, with their left flank stark open, but in beau- tiful order, contentedly marched up the slope.* The sentiment which had thus rejected the aid proffered by General Codrington was not one nni- versally entertained by the officers of the Guards. A little later, and at a moment when the Grena- diers were halted on the slope, with the Vladimir coluuni impending over their left flank, Major Hume of the 95th, and an ensign of the same corps, came bearing the colours of their regiment, and having with them eight men. Hume, accost- ing Colonel Hamilton, who ctnumanded the left wing of the Grenadiers, said that the eight men ceived that Colonel Hood thus advanced with the Grenadiers. In his journal he writes : 'Last order received by me was from ' Captain Fielding, Brigade-Major (when battalion was lying ' down under cannonade and .shelling) — " The Brigadier desires ' " you to conform to any movements on your left." ' Kow the movement on Colonel Hooil's left, to which, by the words of General Bentinck's orders, he thus found himself told to con- form, was the retreat of the Fusilier Guards. In other word.s, there had occurred an event which placed Colonel Hood under orders to retire. Therefore it was that, inunediatcly after the sentence above quoted, he wrote in his journal these words : 'Thank God, I disobeyed ! ! ! Advanced steadily iu line.
 * It was in disoljedience to the contingent orders he had re-