Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/232

 188 THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN. CHAP. VI. 2d Period. Charge of ihe Grenadiers. Fourth capture of the Sandbag Battery. The enemy able to riUy in safety beneath the ledee. The Grenadiers fronting eastward. Upon coming more near, the Grenadiers tried to open fire, but the wetted chambers of their rifles were proof again.st the spark from the cap ; and during some moments, whilst snapping and snapping in vain, the men growled out loud mur- murs of rage, but in another instant they had found their solace. Whether spontaneously or whether by Colonel Eeynardson's orders, they brought down their dumb firelocks to the charge, and delivered their attack with the bayonet. The enemy, not awaiting their assault, was swept out of the battery, swept away from the ground at its flanks, and driven back over the ledge in front of the dismantled parapet, to the steeps lower down. There, the fall of the ground withdrew him from the sight of the English, who all remained on the crest. To have pursued the fugitives down the steeps and into the jungle beneath would have been to commit an act of self-dissolution ; and our officers, using great exertions to restrain their men, were able to keep them back on the high ground. Of course such restraint was most wise, nay, vitally essential ; but still, with the greater good thus insured, there were some disadvantages; for the defeated masses, not being pursued, could quickly stay their retreat, could rally and re-form upon sheltered ground, and prepare to renew their attack. The Grenadiers, fronting now to the eastward, with their right a little thrown back, prepared to hold what they had won ; and they busied them- selves in the task of drying their rifles with the