Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/264

 220 THK BATTLE OF INKKRMAN. C B A P. VI. 2d-PeHnl. Distinct character of the fight on the easteru front. the Kitspur. There, the masses — the Seliughiusk battalions — which fought on the steeps overhang- ing the Tchernaya, found shelter in general after every discomfiture by retreating only a little way down ; and apparently they soon understood that they were exempt from the worst consequences of defeat because the policy of their English adver- sary obliged him to abstain from pursuit. They rallied so promptly, and delivered their assaults so quickly one after the other, that the sum of their eftbrts might be almost regarded in aggregate as a single, unceasing onslaught ; for although at one moment the ledge in front of the Battery, or elsewhere in front of our line, might seem left to the dead and the wounded over much of its space, and only darkened beyond by crowds of men turn- ing their backs, yet presently again it would become overspread by that broad, deep, and heav- ing expanse of white upturned faces which dis- tinguished the times of attack from the times of retreat. Though in some places clear, the atmosphere overhanging the steeps on this Tchernaya front was still in such a condition as to be strongly retentive of smoke, and from this cause, as well as from the abrupt fall of the ground beyond the ledge, it resulted that the enemy's columns when advancing to attack from the east were often unseen by our people until within some thirty or forty yards. At about this distance, the mass would in general raise a loud cheer, but a cheer which our people detected as one delivered by