Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/123

IJATTLE OF THE ALMA. 97 The loss at this time was not great. Our men chap. were in the belief that speed was required of ' them ; and having before them no chain of skir- mishers to feel the way and control the pace of the Division, they struggled forward with eager haste. In passing from one of the enclosures to another, part of the line came to the top of a vertical bank, revetted with stone, and forming a kind of 'sunk fence.' Standing there, the men observed that a violent gust of shot was beating in against the stone work at their feet ; and it seemed to them that, the moment they sprang from the top of the fence to the lower vineyard, their legs would be shattered by a thousand mis- siles. For a moment they paused, as though for some guidance ; but the guidance was such as is given by — 'Forward, first company!' 'Second ' company, show them the way ! ' The first who leaped down stood unscathed in the vineyard be- low ; the rest followed. Dangers shrink before the advance of resolute men. There was not much loss in that lower vineyard. The troops pressed on. Amongst the vineyards there were, here and there, farm-cottages and homesteads ; and since the obstructions which the men were encounter- ing had destroyed their formation, it became pos- sible for such as loved their safety more than their honour to linger in the shelter afforded by these buildings. Some few, they say, lingered. The Division hurried forward with just such an.iovpr trace of its original Ime-iormation as could re- VOL. III. G