Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/290

 246 THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN. CHAP, the loosing of these torrents, there burst i'orth the VI. [ . . " passion that had been gathering in the Sand- 2d. Period. ^^^ Battery. There, opposite impulsions were the troops clashincr. A supplv of ammunition, then newly vithin the » ^ ^ •' . . work. brought up, furnished means of continuing an attitude of simple defence on the crest. His Eoyal Highness of Cambridge, with an immense energy of voice and gesture, was commanding, entreating, adjuring all the men who could hear him to keep the high ground ; and the colours of the Grenadiers remaining steadfast in the hands of Verschoyle and Turner offered proof to those who could see them that the battalion as a body was not under orders to move. But then, on the other hand, to men long enraged and still chafing at the obstacle of a parapet without a banquette, there was ineffable charm and temp- tation in the sound of the tumult, the fray going on close outside on the ledge — in the voices of comrades engaged life to life with their foes, and the moan of the columns beyond. Major Champion of the 95th, ever vehement in fight as in prayer, proposed to some of the Guards an onset to be carried straight forward by climbing over the parapet ; whilst Carmichael of the same regiment was already undertaking to lead out a mixed body of men from the left shoulder of the work ; and it may be that these forces, in making ready to spring, were the first to utter the cry, but wliat we know is, that from numbers and numbers of voices, and almost at once, there abruptly burst out the word ' Charge ! ' Percy,