Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/68

 42 BA.TTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP. The working of this little cheat had been • liitherto aided by circumstance. With the force which'ti.e Wilder Mentschikoff there were two battalions of foMiers h.vi l'i»ssian seamen — men belonging to those valiant tl?''p"toruin crews of the Black Sea fleet which were destined uliVlfrmy^ to maintain the glory of the Russian arms in the bitterest hours of trial, when the land-forces seemed to desert them — but partly from their want of precision in manoeuvring, partly from their sailor-like whims, and partly, no doubt, from the mere fact of their being a small and peculiar minority, they had become a standing subject of merriment to the rest of the troops. The Russian soldiery, therefore, were prepared to receive tales assuring them that the bodies of red-coats now discernible in the distance were, all of them, battalions of sailors, against whom they might well have their laugh as they had at their own naval comrades. This idea had fastened so well upon the mind of the Russian army, that before the battle began, it was shared by some of the more illiterate of the officers, and even, it was said, in one instance by a general of division. Surprise at ^ut tlic siglit uow watclicd with keen eyes from ii!eEMgHs°i the enemy's heights was one which seemed to have some bearing upon the rumour that the English were powerless in a land engagement. The French and the Turks were in the deep, croM'ded masses which every soldier of the Czar had been accustomed to look upon as the forma- tions needed for battle ; but, to the astonishment anay.