Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/529

 SEQUEL TO INKEKMAN NARKATIVE. 485 soldiery proved greater than theirs, yet scarce chap. any of them, except Horsford's battalion, had ^"^' any other arm than the musket.* The results of the strife between huge Eussian causes tend. masses on one side, and our thin English lines "'count for on the other, have at first sight a look of the the fight. marvellous ; yet were owing in the main, after all, to the union of four well-known conditions : — 1. The nature of the ground ; 2. The mist ; 3. The enemy's gross way of fighting in masses; 4. The quality of our of&cers and men. 1. It is true that our people springing forward The ground. to the fight at their outposts did not make a fuU use of their heights, and that their efforts indeed bore little resemblance to the ordinary operation of defending a strong position ; but they could not deprive themselves of the good they derived from having their flanks well covered, with their ' home ' front,' if so one may call it, shut in by the hand of Nature and narrowed to the modest propor- tions which befitted their want of numbers; whilst they also — being few against many — found advantage in that thick growth of Inush- wood which both baffled the eye and obstructed the assaults of the enemy. 2. At first, it is true, the mist favoured Soi- The mist monoff^'s enterprise; but afterwards, it wrought strongly against him ; for unless they can pour round the flanks of their adversary, the power of mighty numbers advancing upon a confined front
 * Only, I believe, about 35 rifles to a reginient.