Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/254

 210 THE BATTLE OF INKEKMAN. CHAP, under the parapet of the empty work with exult- ' ing cheers, whilst others drew as near as the 2d Period. Q■^.Q^^Y([■J^g of their comrades would allow to the coveted goal ; and it resulted that the great Ok- hotsk column, which in spite of a ceaseless and murderous fire had long held on its steadfast way from the bed of the gorge to the crest, was now a This the 6th less shapely, if not a disordered mass. But the capture. i. ./ enemy was flushed with a sense of his supposed achievement ; and this was but natural ; for, ex- cepting only the men who had themselves stood behind the parapet, scarce any of the contending soldiery, whether Russian or English, had yet come to know that the Battery was a worse than valueless prize. The After further advancing some way, the enemy opposed o ^ J forces came to a halt; and, our people, on their part, standing ' ' j. j- ' i. ' at bay. qq^ yielding up any more ground, the two hostile forces — the thousands in a misshapen mass on the one side, and the hundreds on the other in a knotted, strongly curved line — stood at bay con- fronting each other, and divided by a space which, though greater elsewhere, was at one point to- wards the right no more than about eight yards.* The firing continued, and along the chief part of our line the rifle was still working havoc in the enemy's masses, but with some of the Grenadiers on the right ammunition began to fail, and a few of their immediate adversaries were feeling, it seems, a like want; for the combatants on each side at this spot began to hurl against one another some
 * 'Six or eight yards.' — C. LiDdsay.