Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/152

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126 BATThK OF Tin; ALMA. CHAP, redoubt. Captain Bell, of the Eoyal Welsh, ran ! up, overtook it, and, pointing his capless pistol at the head of the driver, ordered him, or rather signed to hira, to stop instantly and dismount. The driver sprang from his saddle and fled. Bell seized the bridle of the near horse, and he had already turned the gun round, when, Sir George Brown riding up angry, and ordering him to go to his company, he of course obeyed, yet not until he had effectually started the horses in the right direction ; for they drew the gun down the hill, and the capture became complete.* Of the men who had moved forward from the top of the river's bank, many now lay upon the hill-side dead or wounded ; and the Eoyal Fusi- liers, with fragments of other regiments, were still engaged with the enemy's infantry ; but the greater portion of five battalions were now upon the ground which the enemy had made his stronghold.+ Yet the tendency to converge towards the re- doubt as their goal had so closely compressed the assailing mass, that its front now hardly outflanked the parapet ; and all the assailants of the redoubt were either within the work or closely gathered round it. These men by their impetuous onset had appa- rently bewildered the enemy ; for though having on

  • The gun is now at Woolwich. The lior.ses served for some

time in our ' IHack Battery.' + The 33.1, the ' Royal Welsh ' (or 23d), the ' Derbies ' (95tli), the 19th, and the 2d "battalion of the Rifle Brigade.