Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/272

 246 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP. ' nations compassed liim round about;' that they ^' ' came round about him like water ; ' that they ' kept him in on every side ; yea, that they kept ' him in on every side.' This anxiety was all wrongly based. Far from having his whole array outilanked towards the east to any w'oeful extent, Kvetzinski had a column on his extreme right which fairly enough confronted the extreme left of the English infantry ; and, far indeed from being himself outnumbered, he was largly out- numbering his adversaries ; but it followed from the difference between liis and his enemy's man- ner of fighting that each of his columns, taken separately, was widely outflanked, and he was becoming an example of what must happen to the commander of colunms when (without exert- ing his weight by trying to charge home with the bayonet) he strives to set his dense masses against troops standing firmly in line. Tiie sight of Presently, he saw that the array of plumed advanoing soldicrs which had stood ranged next to the Cold- ui>on his lightfront stream was moving — was moving up — was mov- convmces him that ing swiftly ; and he knew that the nearest of the he must ° "^ ', . . , move. columns which he had on his right was so far from the ground where he stood, and so hindered, too, by the intervening dip of the ground, as to be unable to engage the new-comers before the moment when (unless he retreated) they would reach the flank of his right Vladimir battalions. On the other hand, lie could not, in common prudence, stand still and wait to be turned by the battalion now gliding up the slope on his right;