Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/186

 142 THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN. CHAP. VI. IH Period. Resolute advance further oast of six Russian battalions. Reparation of one battalion from the other must therefore of necessity pass fvoin the west to the east of the field. On ground lying more towards the east than that cumbered by his routed troops, the enemy still continued to advance with six battalions of infantry ; and it would seem that these troops were screened by the mist from any depressing knowledge of what had been going on near them ; because, far from conforming, as other troops had done, to the movements of retreat on their right, they came on with a greater decisiveness than their countrymen had hitherto displayed, the truth being, that our pickets, after long and obstinate resistance, had by this time, in great measure, expended their cartridges, and could be driven in with comparative ease. For some time the six battalions — two of the Tomsk and four of the Kolivansk regiment — found means, as other columns had done before, to avoid the open top- land, and make good their way on hanging ground, along the north bank of the Mikriakoff Glen ; but afterwards, bending to their left, they made bold to trespass at last upon the hitherto avoided domain of the Saddle-top Keach ; and — for the moment — they transgressed with impunity, be- cause the men of our pickets, now driven before them in numbers, were masking the fire from Home Eidge. One of the Kolivansk battalions, separating itself from the others, inclined away towards Hil^ Bend in a direction which was almost due east ; but the rest of the force, deeply echeloned, 1