Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/342

 298 THE BATTLE OF INKKKMAJ^ CHAP. VI. 2d Period. The united line formed by the 63d regiment and the right wing of the 21st: the guns this line had to support. The enemy assailing the left of Penne- father's main artillery line, and already gaining the crest. Penne- father's address to the 63d regiment XVIII. When the 600 raeu under Swyny and Ainslie formed line on the west of Home Kidge, their right had before it the extreme left of Penne- father's artillery front, and on their opposite flank too they presently had some guns to de- fend, for three pieces of cannon under Boothby were at this time withdrawn from Turner's bat- tery, and moved so far down along the western slope of the ridge as to be almost, if not quite, at its foot.* It was, however, on the right of the line formed by these 600 men, that the next storm would pre- sently burst. Strong bodies of Eussian infantry which had been hitherto concealed by the brush- wood emerged all at once into sight, swarmed up to attack the extreme left of Pennefather's main artillery line, and were now almost close to the guns. General Pennefather rode up to Colonel Swyny (whose regiment formed both the right and the central part of the line) and said to him, ' Let me see what mettle the 63d is made of In ' a moment, the enemy will be upon you. As ' soon as you see him, fire a volley, and charge ! ' The General was obeyed to the letter. Swyny's regiment — already upstanding — discharged its fire into the crowd of Kussian soldiery now all but touching the guns, and then not only these Colonel Fitzmayer, who commanded the whole of the artillery attached to the second division.
 * This nioveiiient was not one directed by Turner, but by