Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/128

 96 THE ENEMY'S GREAT NIGHT ATTACK. chap for. when the advance of our soldiery was be- IV ! — coming, or had nearly become what Englishmen mean by 'a charge,'" the column fired a last volley ; and then — still hanging together after the manner of Kussians in flight — began to re- treat at the double, its rear files turning however, and firing back shots whilst they ran. By one of these Parthian balls there was taken the life of the captain who had ordered and led the charge. Whilst moving eagerly forward at the side of Colonel Kelly, and whilst listening indeed to his words, Hedley Vicars was stricken and killed. Our soldiery, in spite of the darkness, saw enough to be sure that their cheers were accel- erating the flight of the column ; and a brave little bugler of the 97th, whose irrepressible zeal kept him always far out towards the front, was unsparing in the use of a power with which he seemed to think himself armed. As he rightly or wrongly imagined, he made the retreating mass spring at the blast of his clarion like a horse that is touched with the whip, and so kept the whole force at a gallop by ' sounding the ' advance ' in its rear. Colonel Kelly at last stayed the chase, and brought back the '97th detachment' to its for- mer post at the trench. Defeat of With his men of the '77th detachment,' SUp- Zavallch- ine-scoi- ported by that of the 88th, Captain Eickman, after a well-sustained fight, and losing several men, defeated the venturesome column which nmt.