Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/401

 THE MAIN FIGHT. 357 VI. below, but also (from over the parapet of the chap. causeway) dropped a plunging fire down on bat- talions in the bed of the Quarry Kavine. VII. The separated masses of Eussians which consti- The left tuted the left wing of the assailing force had been Tssmu'ng '^ marching up nearly abreast of the great trunk back by ^^^ column, and they began their ascent of the Home fire. Ridge without finding themselves there resisted by infantry ; but from this alluring immunity they drew, on the whole, no advantage, for the absence of any interposed soldiery laid them open to the fire of our ordnance. For a while, it is true, they were spared. The gun on our right of Home Ridge which their foremost column directly confronted was one worked at the moment by a young artilleryman who had failed to depress it sufficiently for striking at troops which, though fast coming up, were still some way below the crest. His firing was so high that the head of the column ascended to within some thirty or forty yards of the gun without as yet suffering harm. But Captain Yelverton chanced to be present with this part of Pennycuick's battery, and the vantage- height of his saddle enabled him to see the exact position of the approaching column. Dismount- ing from his horse he ran forward to the gun, depressed it with his own hand, permitted himself