Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/452

 408 THE BATTLIC OF INKEKMAN. CHAP, they could get away by the Hanks of the woik , '__ The raging pack had so closed that all lateral bth Period, outlet was blocked, and when the hapless Rus- sians at last had turned their backs to the foe, they faced against the parapet — a parapet nine or ten feet in height unprovided with any banquette. To a great and compressed throng of men encum- bered with coats long as gowns, and cut off in flank and rear, this parapet in most places was as a prison wall, and the best hope of escape that a man could well have was by one of the two embrasures. These two outlets were presently crowded — were choked. It was upon a pen of helpless Russians that the furious Zouaves sprang in with their bayonets. What followed was slaughter. The standard of the victorious bat- talion was plantuil upon the top of the parapet. Colonel Wimp fen had before him a somewhat less easy task, because his adversaries, however embarrassed by disadvantage of ground, were not at all events fighting with their backs to a high parapet, and accordingly the Algerines he com- manded were for a while fended back ; but the flight of the Russians defeated at the Sandbag Battery carried with it before very long the dis- comfiture of their comrades, so that those who had combated the Africans no less than those worsted by the Zouaves were forced down the steeps in retreat. The Zouaves pursuing dciscendcd at length to the ground where the 95th had stood fast, and completed the deliverance of the hun- dred men who, ever since the period of the ' false