Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/148

 126 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. chap, the mere physical conditions of the fight were _ 1 largely in favour of the Russians ; but in regard to the temper of the combatants, there were cir- cumstances which tended to animate the few and to depress the many. Under conditions most trying to cavalry, the Russians evinced a degree of steadfastness not unworthy of a nation which was famous for the valour of its infantry; but kept as they had been at a halt, and condemned (in violation of the principles which govern the use of cavalry) to be passively awaiting the attack, it was impossible for them to be com- parable in ardour, self-trust, and moral ascendant to horsemen exalted and impassioned by the rapture of the charge, and now in their towering pride riding this way and that with fierce shouts through the patient, long-suffering mass. In some parts of the column the combat- ants were so closely locked as to be almost un- able, for awhile, to give the least movement to their chargers ; and wherever the red - coated horseman thus found himself inwedged and sur- rounded by assailants, it was only by the swift- circling ' moulinet,' by an almost ceaseless play of his sabre whirling round and round overhead, and by seizinu now and then an occasion for a thrust or a cut, that he was able to keep himself among the living ; but the horse, it seems, during these stationary fights, instinctively sought and found shelter for his head by bending it down, and leaving free scopo for the sabres to circle and