Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/278

 252 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAT. ]'A'eii this, lor some minutes, the brave Vladimir ' bore. * If the voice of the English soldier is lieard loud in fight, his sliout may be the shout of triumph acliievod, or else — and then it is of a thousandfold higher worth — it may be the like of what used to foretoken the crisis of the old Peninsular battles, when late in the day the voice of ' the Light Division ' was heard ; — the almost inspired utterance by which the soldier, growing suddenly conscious of an overmastering power, declares and makes known his ascendant. Of two things happening in a field of battle, at nearly the same time, it is often hard to say which was the first; and yet upon that narrow priority of a few moments there may dejjend the question of which event was the cause, and which the effect. What people know is, that there was an instant when the Vladimir column was seen to look hurt and unstable, and that, either at the same instant, or the instant before, or the instant after, the Grenadiers were hurrahing on their left, hurrahing at their centre, hurrahing along their whole line. As though its term of life were measured — as though its structure were touched and sundered by the very cadence of the cheer- ing — the column bulged, heaving, heaving. ' The 'line will advance on the centre !■)* The men of Russian endurance at 'five minutes.' Private letter, 21st Sept. 1854. — Note (o ilh Edition. t In this, and in the sentence presently following where it
 * Speaking of course roughly. Colonel Hood puts this period