Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/294

 2G8 13ATTI.K OF THE ALM.V. CHAP. JJiit, luureover, the lliglilanJeis being iiicii of ^- great stature, and in strange garb, their plunie.s being tall, and the view of them being broken and distorted by the wreaths of the smoke, and there being, too, au ominous silence in their ranks, there were men among the liussians who began to conceive a vague terror — the terror of things unearthly; and some, they say, imagined that they were charged by horsemen strange, silent, monstrous, bestriding giant chargers. * The col- mnns were falling into that plight — we have twice before seen it this day — were falling into that plight, that its officers were moving hither and thither, with their drawn swords, were com- manding, were imploring, were threatening, nay, were even laying hands on their soldiery, and striving to hold them fast in their places. This struggle is the last stage but one in the agony of a body of good infantry massed in close column. Unless help should come from elsewhere, the three columns would have to give way. But help came. From the high ground on our left another heavy colunni — the column composed of the two right Sousdal battalions — was seen coming down. It movt'd straight at the flank of the 93d. So now, for the third time that day, a mass of infantry some fifteen hundred strong was descend- ing upon the uncovered flank of a battalion in gathered the accounts of the impression produced upou their niiuds by the advance of the Ilighhuiders.
 * It was from the poor woiuiJed prisoners that our people