Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/144

118 P,ATTLK OF THK AI.MA. cii A P. I'alleii back, or moved aside out of the line of fire, L__ the gunners in the Great Redoubt made ready to open fire upon our regiments with round-shot, canister, and grape. First one gun, then another, then more. From east to west the parapet grew white, and because of the bank of new smoke, no gun could any longer be seen by our men, except at the moment when it was pouring its blaze through the cloud ; but on what one may call a glacis, at three hun- dred yards from the mouths of the guns, the lightning, the thunder, and the bolt are not far apart. It was at an early moment after emerg- ing from the bed of the stream that the slaughter of our people began. Indeed some of them, when struck down, had so nearly reached the top of the bank that they fell back dead and dying into the channel of the river. Death loves a crowd, and many fell ; but all who were not struck down continued to move forward. In some places, the closer portions of tlic advancing throng were eight or ten deep ; and the round-shot, tearing cruelly through and through, mowed down so many of our devoted soldiery that several times by sheer havoc the clusters lor a moment were thinned. But only for a moment; because that singular tendency which had begun with the advance into the vineyards w-as now setting in more strongly. Moving to the attack without being ordered to make towards any given spot, almost every officer and man (except those towards the flanks who were engaged with the enemy's infantry) had in-