Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/323

 THE MAIN laOHT. 279 the Russians surrounding them. The enemy's chap. retreating movement proceeded ; and Captain [_ Burnaby himself with, besides, the six other sur- ^'^ ^'^'^"^ vivors of his little rear-guard — that is, with Ban- croft, Archer, Turner, Pullen, Hill, and Troy — became parted at length from the hostile multi- tude in which until now they had been mingled. No longer molested, and exulting in the now completed salvation of the colours, they met the advancing battalion to which they had owed their deliverance and gratefully passed through its ranks.* Without venturing to adopt any estimate of its success of actual duration in minutes, one may say that tliis f,'uar(i . . ^ . opcralioua struggle agam-st encompassmg uiimbers was main- tained during all the time needed for the achieve- ment of the purpose in hand.f A rear-guard spontaneously formed by some twenty of the also — iu chief measure — the fight on the Ledgeway, I owe my knowledge to a most valuable little record called ' The Right ' Flank Company at Inkerman,' which contains the separate statements of Captain Burnaby himself, and nine of those who took part with him — viz.. Colour - sergeant Minor, Wilkins, Gilbert, Morris, Sayer, Overson, Bancroft, Archer, Troy ; the three last, it will be observed, being three of the seven sur- vivors of the rear-guard. Each of the statements is an entirely independent one, not copied or borrowed from the others, and all, as I think, bear the evident stamp of truth. •t" One of the partakers in this singular fight estimates at no less than ten minutes the duration of what was only a part of it — namely, that close wrestling between the few and the many which followed upon Burnaby's charge ; but it is difficult for any man engaged in such strife to measure the flight of tiiii<e by a mere effort of mind.
 * As regards the achievements of this little rear-guard, and