Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/300

 256 THE BATTLE OF INKEKMAxV. CHAP, the false victory to its couclusion that we have VI ' been parted all this while from Sir George Cath- 2d Period. gg^j,|. When Sir George, indulging his dream, rode joyously down, as we saw, to praise and congratulate Torrens, he already was near to the moment of finding himself rudely awakened. cathcart He had followed his troops in pursuit some by'^afire way down the side of the hill, when he all at heights once heard from behind the outburst of a volley behind him. , ., i i xi • i. of musketry, which tore through the air above him, and swept down over his head in the direc- tion of the red-coats below. For a moment, Cathcart thought that this vol- ley had been fired by mistake, and must have come from the Guards ; but when the smoke lifted, a glance dispelled his idea, for above him on the crest from which he had so lately de- scended was the head of a strong Eussian column. The enemy had turned the position of the Kit- Thein- spur by simply marching in through the still ilSfufsk open ' gap ' which Lord Eagian ordered Cathcart battalion. , ~,-t^..-,, ,^ • '' • ■ t j_ to close. Without firing or receiving a shot, nay even, so far as I learn, without having been seen by the English, a battalion of the liikoutsk regi- ment had moved up from the Quarry Eavine across the unguarded slopes which descend to- wards the north from Mount Head, and now was so placed as to be not only in the direct rear of Cathcart, but also in the rear of the Duke of Cambridge, then remaining, as we saw, with the colours of the Grenadier Guards and 100 men round them, by the gorge of the Sandbag Battery.