Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/482

 438 THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN. CHAP. IV. 7th Period. Its diacom- fitui'e. The Uus- si;tiiS in pciil of i)eing over- taken tiy a great disaster. The troops thus descried were the four bat talions of the Vladimir regiment which, having been directed, as we saw, to cover the retreat, were now transcending their orders by moving fast down the hillside, as though to deliver an attack. No longer broken up, as at first, into company columns, these 2000 men had all gath- ered into one mass.* The officer who had descried the column was Captain Chermside, then stand- ing near one of the 18-pounders with Colonel Fitzmayer at his side. Another sure look with a field -glass, a word to Colonel Fitzmayer, a loud eager call from Fitzmayer to CoUingwood Dickson, a few^ words from Dickson to D'Aguilai and Sinclair, and first one, then another, and an- other again of the tyrant 18-pounder shot was tearing through the ranks of the column. The stricken mass turned and fell back, undergoing, as it moved, cruel slaughter, but not lapsing into confusion. II. Thus discomfited in his effort to cover the movement by help of his Vladimir regiment, and retreating with vast trains of artillery upon diffi- cult steeps, the enemy might seem to be now at the mercy of the Allies ; for, unless he should terribly at the Alma) was onl)' 2132. The change of forniatioii tends to confinn the surmise that the force moved with a mind to attack, for the Russians of those days imagined that a dense column was the most lurmidable instniment with which to strike a blow.
 * The strength of the Vladimir regiment (which had .sullered