Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/126

 104 THE BATTLE OF BA1ACLAVA. CHAP. I. three hundred dragoons, no one of them seems to have questioned that it was right to attack ; and the element of doubt being thus altogether ex- cluded, they at least had that strength which belongs to men acting with a resolute purpose. The great numbers of military spectators who were witnesses of the com- bat. Distinctive colours of the uniforms worn by the Russians and the English dragoons. Except in the instances of combats under the walls of besieged fortresses, it can rarely occur that armies, or large portions of armies, are not only so near and so well placed for the purpose oi seeing, but also so unoccupied with harder tasks as to be able to study a combat going on under their eyes ; and still more rare must be the oc- casions which modern warfare allows for seeing a conflict rage without looking through a curtain of smoke ; but, besides our Light Cavalry Brigade which stood near at hand, there had gathered large numbers of military observers — including French, English, and Turks — who, being at the edge of the Chersonese upland, were on ground so inclined as to be comparable to that from which tiers upon tiers of spectators in a Eoman amphi- theatre used to overlook the arena ; and the ledges of the hillside were even indeed of such form as to invite men to sit while they gazed. The means that people had of attaining to clear perceptions were largely increased by the differ- ence that there was between the colour of the Russian and that of the English squadrons. With the exception of a few troops which showed their uniform — the pale-blue pelisse and jacket of a hussar regiment — all the Russian horsemen,