Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/371

 THE MAIN FIGHT. 327 ward. Soon, however, the English staff officer chap. was struck by a shot which not only put an !l end to his efforts, but forced him to quit the ^apenod. field, and again the battalion .stopped. Then it broke, began to fall back, and retreated down the its retreat. hillside. At this moment, there came up by fours, under Egerton, that victorious wing of the 77th which had been withdrawn, as we saw, from the left. The wing marched in such a direction as to be almost running its head against the flank of the retreating French, and one of Egerton's captains, in the heat of the indignation he felt, did not scruple to lay his hand on the collar of a Erench officer retiring across his front. The arrested officer explained his retrograde movement by pointing up towards the crest, and saying — ' But, sir, there are the Eussians ! ' * The indignation of our people did not all at once stay the retreat of the French battalion, and for the moment, it fell back into Pennefather's camp. Thus the enemy almost unresisted, and with perii re- only the help of his vanguard, was grasping that the Ud-eut "' very Home Ridge which the Allies, as some French thought, could scarce lose without forfeiting their hold on the Chersonese, — nay, even on the Crimea itself. Great issues had been seemingly trusted to the steadfastness of a young French battalion, and when the prop broke, there was little at hand to replace it. Excepting Egerton's little column of some 200
 * ' Mais, Monsieur, voilb, les Russes ! '