Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/12

 V'iii THE YEAR 1853 AND THE YEAH 1876. — a force of some five thousand infantry, consisting of volunteers and militiamen, supported, it seems, by five guns ; and before long, he not only had to take his brigade into action, but to use it as the means of assailing an entrenched position at Kokowitz. Young Kireeff very well understood that the irregular force entrusted to him was far from being one that could be commanded in the hour of battle by taking a look with a field-glass and uttering a few words to an aide-de-camp ; so he determined to carry forward his men by the simple and primitive expedient of person- ally advancing in front of them. He was a man of great stature, with extraordinary beauty of features ; and, whether owing to the midsummer heat, or from any wild, martyr - like, or dare - devil impulse, he chose, as he had done from the first, to be clothed altogether in white. Whilst advancing in front of his troops against the Turkish battery he was struck — first by a shot passing through his left arm, then presently by another one which struck him in the neck, and then again by yet another one which shat- tered his right hand and forced him to drop his sword ; but, despite all these wounds, he was still continuing his resolute advance, when a fourth shot passed through his lungs, and brought him, at length, to the ground, yet did not prevent him from uttering — al- though with great effort — the cry of 'Forward ! Por- ' ward:' A fifth shot, however, fired low, passed through the fallen chief's heart and quenched his gal- lant spirit. The brigade he had commanded fell