Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/190

 158 THE APRIL BOMBARDMENT. chap. Captain Oldershaw and his men, as seems vi. . natural, were charing at the painful restraint The fight. w hi c }} t] lus k e pt their battery silent, when from the (proper) left face of the Flagstaff Bastion, a 68-pounder shot came tearing in through the parapet, struck the sergeant (who was speaking at the moment to his captain), and tossed him up high into the air ; whilst also by the blow it had dealt them when forcing itself through the barrier, there were some of the sand-bags so driven that they came charging, knocking, and banging against all that stood in their way. By sand- bags thus hurled, the captain with two of his men was roughly thrust, knocked, and sent lifted over a pile of shot. Discovering — almost with surprise — that, despite all the blows heaped upon him, he was not a disabled man, the captain hastened back to where the mangled — nay separ- ated ! — remains of the poor shattered sergeant were lying. The sufferer was still able to see, and even to speak. He saw the tempting hilt of a pistol in Oklershaw's breast-pocket, and asked his captain to shoot him. This of course was a favour that Oldershaw could not grant. He could only tell the poor sergeant (with all tender- ness, yet still in words giving firm guidance, if not indeed even command) that — good soldier to the last — he 'must die properly.'* Of course, all understood without words that the 68-pounder shot thus crashing into their battery was a challenge that released them at
 * He died a few minutes afterwards.