Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/332

 288 THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN. CHAP, stood carefully shoulder to shoulder, always eager ^- to obey every word they could catch from the lips Id Period. Qf their chiefs ; and even when the communica- tion of orders was baffled by the mist and smoke, by the roar and tumult of the fight, there did not then follow any collapse of the fighting power, for what happened in such case was that ' every man ' worked for himself, and did the best he could.' The fire of these few resolute English in line was more deadly than any that the enemy could de- liver from the heads of his bleeding columns ; but the Russians burnt abundance of cartridges, and our people could not help wondering how it was that they were more or less able to live and to thrive under a pattering hail of lead ever thud- ding into the earth, and cutting the oak twigs all round them. The fight was characterised by a recurrence of effects curiously uniform. In every one of the many charges they made, these men of the Thirtieth were for the moment victorious, always driving before them the front ranks of their an- tagonists, and, of course, more or less gaining ground ; but the moment they ceased to be the assailants, they lost their ascendancy, finding always that when they stopped, and lapsed into an attitude of sheer defence, they could no longer bear up against the weight of the hostile throng ; and substantially, it came to this, that they must be always either gaining or losing ground, either charging or falling back. Now, the same men of course cannot always be charging; so our people,