Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/141

 THU BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. L19 resulted from the bends of a line now deformed by its speed, the 'three hundred ' crashed in upon the front of the column. They crashed in with a momentum so strong that no cavalry, extended in line and halted, could well have withstood the shock if it had been physically able to turn and fall back ; but, whatever might be their inclina- tion, the front-rank men of the Russian column were debarred, as we saw, from all means of breaking away to the rear by the weight of their own serried squadrons sloping up the hillside close behind them ; and, it being too late for them to evade the concussion by a lateral flight, they had no choice — it was a cruel trial for cav- alry to have to endure at the halt — they had no choice but to await and suffer the onslaught. On the other hand, it was certain that if the Russian hussar being halted should so plant and keep himself counter to his assailant as to be brought into diametric collision with the heavier man and the heavier horse of the Inniskillings or the Greys whilst charging direct at his front, he must and would be overborne. . It might, therefore, be imagined that many of the troopers in the front lank of the Russian column would now be per- force overthrown, that numbers of our dragoons would in their turn be brought to the ground by that very obstacle — the obstacle of overturned horses and horsemen — which their onset seemed about to build up, and that far along the front of the column the field would be encumbered with a heap or bank of prostrated riders and chargers,