Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/335

 THE MAIN FIGHT. 291 To the oflPioers of the liifles (as, for instance, to chap. Bramstou, wliose description is the one now be- ._^i_ fore me), they addressed themselves on bended 2(J Period knees, with hands clasped in prayer ; and ' extra- ' ordinary,' says Bramston, was the sudden change of every suppliant's countenance when he all at once learnt from kind gestures that there was no danger of his being despatched. The troops composing this wing of the Kiflea became parted in the course of the pursuit, the right flank company (or a part of it) bending off towards its right front, whilst the rest of the wing inclined away to its left ; but when the liussian columns once more emerged from the Quarry Eavine, they were met liy another small body of English soldiery, that is, by Hume's wing of Hume'-s the 95th, a force numbering 200 men, which S'throwi (pursuant to orders delivered by Pennefather in towards the person) was marching in line towards the Bar- rier.* The two hostile forces were yet advancing each against each, when Hume, a splendid officer — we saw how he fought on the Alma — was wounded and disabled ; and it seems that thence- forth the wing acted rather through the separate energies of its component parts than in its capa- city as an aggregate unit.f come into action with a strength of 443. t When Hume had been wounded and taken from the field, there was no longer, I believe, any mounted officer with the wing ; and it is obvious that under dense mist and in brush- wood, it would be difficult for any officer on foot to exert a per- fectly eflective command over troops extended in line.
 * Hume's wing comprised the half of a battalion which had