Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/165

 THE MAIN FIGHT. 121 of the Eangers — sixteen, it is thought, was their chap. number* — got over the wall ; and on its further ' side, as well as on the ground to the left of it i«'-f«'"i«i (where Captain Crosse was at one time surrounded-f- by Eussians and wounded), there were some mo- ments of hot and close fighting, but before the rest of the men could get over the wall, a bugler in the rear sounded the ' retire,' and the two com- panies then falling back, were in their turn pur- sued along the lower half of the Mikriakoff Glen, and thence up across its southern acclivity to the spur they before had descended.;}: but there sesms to be no room for doubt as to what the force was. The 8 Russian columns were the 8 battalions of the Boutirsk and Ouglitz regiments, with a strength of 4664 men, and the artillery comprised two batteries of 8 guns each. after the battle on the further side of the wall ; and, inquiiy not showing, it seems, that any of the survivors had gone so far, it appeared to result that the number of men who cleared the obstacle was neither greater nor less than sixteen. + It was by the use of his revolver that Captain Crosse when thus surrounded found means to defend himself. J Lieutenant Baynes was half over the wall, and, in feet, astride on the top of it, when the bugle sounded. The name of the officer who gave the order to the bugler is not known to me, but one may say it was full time that these two companies of the Rangers should prepare to get back, for with a strength of only about 140 men, they had penetrated into the interior of the Russian position and — irrespectively of their other anta- gonists — had come into the presence of between four and five thousand fresh troops (4664) which the enemy was holding in reserve. The spot on the furtlier side of the wall where sixteen of the ' Rangers ' were slain, seems to have been the extreme point reached in attack and during the heat of the battle by any of the Allied troops.
 * Sixteen of the Connaught Rangers were found dead the day