Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/80

 58 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. CHAP. I. Maude's troops sent back. The guns on Canro- bert's Hill silenced. Continued resistance of the Turks. Dispositions made by General Seiniakiue for storming horse-artillery, but apparently with little effect, Captain Maude, the officer commanding the troop, was horribly wounded by a shell which entered the body of his horse and there burst. Maude's troop had come into action without a due following of waggons ; and, before long, its ammunition was already so nearly exhausted as to leave but a small supply for even one gun. As soon as Lord Lucan heard this, he ordered that the troop should be withdrawn and kept out of fire until the want could be supplied.* It was hardly to be expected that under the fire of thirty guns, including eight pieces of heavy calibre, the three 12-pounders which formed the armament of Canrobert's Hill would long remain undisabled. The fort became silent, and already the hapless battalion which manned it must have undergone heavy slaughter ; but notwithstanding this, and although it became now apparent that the hill was to be attacked by largely outnumber- ing bodies of infantry, the brave Turks were still unconquered. They moved, indeed, from the un- sheltered part of the work to the side where more cover was offered ; but there, they stood fast, and awaited the attack of the infantry.-f- It was with the five battalions acting under his personal direction that General Semiakine deter- mined to storm Canrobert's Hill. Covered by the Lucan instituted no inquiry as to the cause which led to this want of ammunition. t This sketch may help to illustrate the attack of the eleven battalions, with thirty guns, upon the two little works, No
 * Ibid. Maude's severe wound was the reason why Lord