Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/376

 332 THE BATTLE OF INKEKMAN. CHAP. VI. 3d Period. Bgertoii's advance up the revei'sc sloi^e. Till L6ger rallied. Its advance on Egerton's right rear. Withdiawal of the enemy's vanguard from the crest. of troops feeling and knowing that although re- pressed for the moment, they were strongly and closely supported. At the centre of the Ridge, there yet stood those troops of the vanguard which had there broken over the crest, for they had not been tempted to descend the hillside in pursuit of the retreating French battalion, and still chmg to the ground they had won. But Egerton, we saw, marching eastward by fours, had come round from our left to the part of the Post-road close in front of Pennefather's camp, and now changing his column of march into a line fronting north towards the enemy, he at once advanced up the ridge-side. Before long, he was supported on his right rear, for the discomfited battalion of the 7th L^ger had been rallying in Pennefather's camp with admirable despatch. The experiment of advancing in line after the manner of the English had been abandoned, and the battalion when formed up anew was in double column of com- panies. In that last state of formation it once more marched up on the right of the Post-road, and, Egerton being on the left front of the French, the two movements together constituted an ad- vance in echelon of nearly 1100 Allies. Under this pressure, and especially, perhaps, at the sight of the French column, the enemy's troops on the crest began to fall back, and soon, the whole crest of the Home Ridge was free from its Russian assailants. Whilst still on the reverse slope of the Ridge the battuliun of the 7th Ldger, and the