Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/181

 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 159 Seeing that the column through which Hodge chap. thus rended his way had been pierced and riven from the first by Scarlett's ' three hundred,' that already it had been brought to such a condition as to allow of the 4th Dragoon Guards cutting through it without getting harmed, and that both its huge wings had been shattered and driven in confusedly upon its front and flanks by the Koyals, by the 5th Dragoon Guards, and finally by Hunt's Squadron of the Inniskillings, it would be rash to assign to the attack of any one corps the change which now supervened ; but, what- ever the cause, that resistance to all rearward movement which had long been exerted by the enemy's deep-serried squadrons now began to relax. Less and less obstructed, and less closely locked than before, the melley or throng that had been jammed into a closely locked mass by the last charge of the Inniskillings continued to heave slowly upwards against the slope of the hill. Presently those of the Eussians who had hitherto maintained their array caused or suffered. The break their horses to back a little The movement was column. slight, but close followed by surer signs. The ranks visibly loosened. In the next instant, the whole column was breaking. In the next, all the Retreat of ° _ the whole horsemen composing it had dispersed into one boJ y- immense herd, and — still hanging together as closely as they could without hindrance to their flight — were galloping up the hillside and re- treating by the way they had come. Nearly at the moment when the column began