Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/178

 134 THK I5ATTLE OF INKEHMAN. CHAP. VI. 1st Period. Overthrow of the loose masses foniiiiig the Russian front. Overthrow of the close column in their rear Melley of in- termingled combatants. and there, moving in dimness, the shadowy form of a rider, the naked gleam of a sword, then the wing of the 77th, along its whole front, Inirsting out once more into sight through the bank of the smoke, and tearing straight down at a run, with bayonets brought low to the ' charge.' Though the Russians first exposed to the charge had sought, as we know, to maintain that formation of ' company columns,' which grew afterwards famous in Europe, the thickness of the brushwood or some other cause had prevented them from giving fair trial to the lessons of their German advisers, and they hung together in knots, or grosser aggregates, neither liaving the formidable massiveness of a close battalion column, nor the agile, sagacious vivacity which belongs to smaller units of strength. They did not stand. They broke away as they could, or threw themselves down in the thicket, affecting to be slain, and their overthrow was but a beginning of evil, for the solid column behind them, being now all at once laid bai'e to the onslaught de- scending against it, began to waver, and stopped. Then it heaved, then broke, and before the swift- coming line had yet touched it with steel, was turning as though for flight. There followed a long, raging turmoil, for the men of the 77th breaking loose in pursuit, still drove forward singly or in knots, and tore their way into the throng, some bayoneting the en- cumbered, long -skirted Kussians, some felling them with the stocks of their rifles, but others