Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/268

 242 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP. I. The Greiia- Uit'is and the 'Colil- ' Btream ' eiitj.iged with six liattalions ill column The stress which a line puts uiiou the soldiery of a column ; troop.s which stood fightiii^L; at thi.s time, it ap- pears that the whole of the four Vladimir bat- talions and the lessened mass of the left Kazan column were engaged with the Grenadiers and the Coldstream. In other words, two English bat- talions, each ranged in line, but divided the one from the other by a very broad chasm, were con- tending with six battalions in column. And al- though of these six battalions standing in column there were two which had cruelly suffered, the remaining four had hitherto had no hard fight- ing, and were flushed with the thought that they stood on ground which they themselves had re- conquered. XXXII. Bat, after all, if only the firmness of the slen- der English line should chance to endure, there was nothing except the almost chimerical event of a thorough charge home with the bayonet which could give to the columns the ascendancy due to their vast weight and numbers ; for the fire from a straitened, narrow front could com- paratively do little harm, whilst the fire of the battalion in line was carrying havoc into the liv^ ing masses. Still, neither column nor line gave way. On the other hand, neither column nor line moved forward. East rooted as yet to the ground, the groaning masses of the Eussians and the two scarlet strings of C.uardsmen stood receiv- ing and delivering fire. But meanwhile, on the part of the English,