Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/209

 THE MAIN FIGHT. 165 A Eussian column at one time appeared mov- chap. ing up from the Mikriakoff Glen, but Lord West ^^' with ease drove it down; and it may be almost ^ciP-Twi unreservedly said that from the close of Penne- father's first great fight until the end of the battle, the thousand men guarding his left remained un- molested by infantry. If still under artillery-fire, they had earned the reward of hard toil, and there were soldiery near the head of the Well - way whose rest could not always be broken by the occasional hum of a round-shot, or the roar of the neighbouring fight. Many lay wrapt in sleep. Yet one must not suppose that the rest thus continuea enjoyed by many a soldier could well be shared sion 0^"" by his chiefs ; for our people did not know of the the^westT'" ruin they had just been inflicting npon twenty of the Eussian battalions ; and, the movements of the enemy's infantry being still veiled by mist, no Euglish commander could be sure, or even with much confidence hope, that the great on- slaught made under Soimonoff would not be in some shape renewed. For example, as regards as, for General Pennefather, it would seem that the thepart'of" strain put upon him by his host of assailants ""° '^'' was as yet unrelieved by any germing sense of security against further attacks from the west ; for to Major Maxwell who had come from the Mikriakoff Spur with an anxious question from Jeffreys asking where ammunition could be found, lish infantry, including all the reinforcements which came up in time for the first fight, numbered, as we have seen, 3622 ; 3ee note ante, p. 118.