Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/340

 310 THE CANNONADE OF CHAP. P(^ressip, which, because of its sudden growth, •^^^^' meu called the 'Mushroom' Battery. Whether it was that the minds of men were so kindled as to be capable of giving new colour and form to what their sight conveyed to them, or that Kor- niloffs look and bearing were really in some degree altered by the opening of the long-pro- mised conflict, it is certain that the language of those who rode with him along the line of the boulevard gives a kind of support to that old superstition of the Scots which assured the be- lieving world that approaching death was fore- shown by a sign, and that when his end drew near the doomed man was clothed with a preter- natural brightness. 'Calm and stern,' says one of the staff who rode with Korniloft" — 'calm and ' stern was the expression of his face, yet a slight ' smile played on his lips. His eyes, those won- ' derful, intelligent, and piercing eyes — shone ' brighter than was their wont. His cheeks were ' flushed. He carried his head loftily. His thin ' and slightly bent form had become erect. He ' seemed to grow in size.'* Korniloff returned the same way back to the right wing of the Magstaff Bastion ; and, after speaking with Vice-Admiral Novolsilsky, he re- mounted his horse and descended into the ravine, going on through that part of the defences which connected the Flagsiaflf and the Central Bastions. The road lay along a steep slope, and the blaze • Mateiiaux pour servir.'
 * Admiral Likliatoheff, oue of Koriiiloff's Staff, quoted in the