Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/472

 428 THE BATTLE OF INK EK MAN. CHAP. Thc^ liussians held on with a fortitude which VI ' was akiu to martyrdom, for they could offer no 6th Period, effective resistance to the tyranny of the two 18- Tenacity "^ '' of the pounders, nor even to the fire of our riflemen, Russians despite their aud vet Were suffering cruelly. Of their batteries shattered -^ b j state some were gallantly though hopelessly remaining ill action, whilst others moved, flinching from the unequal encounter, without lapsing into retreat ; but all of them, more or less, were loading the ground with horses and men killed and wounded, and the wrecks of a disabled artillery. Whether owing to the desperate energy of the gunners, toiling hard to the last, it might be difficult to say ; but more here than elsewhere in the field men bit at the ground as they died, seizing mouthfuls of earth and herbage with their teeth.* The battalions still kept in the front were all of them troops which had been defeated again and again, and had suffered frightful losses. The orders to entrench the position had produced no results of such kind as to be a help in the existing emergency. General Dannenberg had liad two horses shot under him, and almost the whole of his staff and other attendants had been killed or wounded.f Yet, sustained it would seem by the faith that Prince Gortschakoff sooner or later must surely come to the rescue, he maintained his ground with a firmness which was the more deserving of praise since he had to go on enduring without being able to attack, and t Prince Mentschikoff in hi.s despatch says literally all.
 * Sec note iu the Ai»peiiil:x, ofTerina; some explauation of this