Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/333

 THE BATTLE OF LALACLAVA. 311 and being two, if not three squadrons deep* It chap. was in a perfect state of formation, and directly '__ confronting our retreating horsemen ; but when "o/and* the remnants of the two English regiments drew Xen'gth. near them, the commander of these Eussian Lan- cers retracted all at once the right shoulder, and its sudden ° change of wheeled his squadrons half back ; so that, instead front of continuing to oppose a direct barrier in the face of our returning Dragoons, his force now stood ranged in such way as to flank the line of retreat, and became, in that way, much more for- midable than before. The movement was execut- ed with a precision which made the strength of the close serried squadrons seem more than ever overwhelming to the few score of English horse- men now moving, each man as he could, with hardly a trace of formation. The evident pur- pose of the manoeuvre was to enable the Russian column to descend upon the flank of the English, originally placed on this side of the valley consisted of only three squadrons ; but we also saw, that of the other three squadrons overthrown by Colonel Shewell some part at once crossed the valley, and it is evidently probable that they did this with the intention of joining their comrades in the gorge of the Tractir road. Also, those of the Lancers who at first fled southward, must have found in a few moments that they were flying from nothing ; and it seems likely that they too would very soon turn or cross over the valley, to the point where their comrades were stationed. I am able to say, on good grounds, that the time which intervened between She- well's combat and the affair I am now speaking of, was suffi- cient to allow of this movement taking place. Upon the whole, it seems probable that all the six squadrons of the regiment were at this time together, and if so, the column, with its front of two, had a depth of three squadrons.
 * We saw that the portion of Jei'opkine's Lancers which was