Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/142

 120 THE BATTLE 01-' BALACLAVA. (J HA P. where .Russians would be struggling for extrica- ' tion intermingled with Inniskillings or Greys. Such a result would apparently have been an evil one for the 'three hundred/ because it would have enabled the unshattered masses of the enemy to bring their numbers to bear against such of the redcoats as might still remain in their saddles. It was not thus, however, that the charge wrought its effect. What had first been done by Scarlett and the three horsemen with him, what had next been done by the leaders of the Greys and the 2d squadron of the Inniskillings, and next again by the squadron-leaders and other regimental officers whose place was in front of their men, that now, after more or less struggle, the whole of these charging ' three hundred ' were enabled to achieve. The result of their contact with the enemy was a phenomenon so much spoken of in the days of the old war against the French Empire, that it used to be then described by a peculiar but recog- nised phrase. Whether our people spoke with knowledge of fact, or whether they spoke in their pride, I do not here stay to question ; but in de- scribing the supposed issue of conflicts in which a mass of Continental soldiery was assailed by English troops extended in line, it used to be said of the foreigners that they ' accepted the files.'* applied ; but it has been adjudged that they describe with mili- tary accuracy the reception which was given by the Russian
 * It was to infantry, I believe, that the words used to be