Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/377

 THE MAIN FIGHT. 333 /ittle force under Egerton, were both of them chap. VI. brought to a halt. The readiness with which the enemy's van- 3^^«*^ guard thus surrendered the crest, was owing in part to the overthrow which their comrades on their right had been just before suffering when attacked by the 55th Regiment ; but it is evident that they must have been also discouraged by the sense of having come under fire from their own artillery. V. A change, which brought back to the Allies continued ° ^ 1 • 1 advance ol their half-lost advantage of ground, was i)lainly the great ^ <^ ' ^ -^ trunk one of great moment ; but it did not result after column. all from any hard struggle, and the real trial of strength was yet to come. The Russians who had yielded so easily were only at most the advanced guard of a powerful force, and had scarce, perhaps, seen the vast good they might have done to their cause by holding the crest a while longer, if only during three or four minutes. The trunk of the assailant force, enclosed in its sheathing of lesser columns and skirmishers, had not ceased for an instant to heave its way forward, and it came fraught with power. A central mass 2000 strong which came guarded in the way we have seen by ensheathing columns was even at the first a formidable assemblage of infantry, but much more so now, because Fortune lending her aid to the tactician's skill had shielded this huge