Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/170

Mi I'.ATTLi: OF J'HK ALMA. C II A P. I. Onr men lodgft them- selves out- side the parapet. and again enleied the redonbt, with a hope that the men would follow him in once more. But, this time, his example was little observed; for almost every man, being driven by want of for- mation to rely upon his own means of making a stand, was busied with the work of settling him- self down as well as he could for a stubborn de- fence; and it was plain (as Codrington himself had been showing the men some few minutes be- fore) that the best ground for making a stand was the foot of the parapet on its outer side. When good infantry soldiers, in the immediate presence of a powerful enemy, are disordered, but still undaunted, the slightest rudiment of a field- work is of infinite value to it — not simply nor chiefly on account of the shelter which it affords, but rather — because it gives a base and nucleus for that coherence which is endangered by the want of formation. If our men, then lying or kneeling along the foot of the parapet, had been well covered at the flanks, it would have been their duty to hold the ground firmly against even a great body r)f infantry attacking them in front. But on either flank, as well as in front of Ihe lengthened crowd of English soldiery which lay clustering about the parapet, the enemy's masses were gathered. On their right rear there was the double-battalion column of the Kazan corps still engaged with the Royal Fusiliers. On their left and left front, there were the two remaining Ijat- talions of the Kazan corps and the four battalions of the Sousdal corps ; l)ut in their immediate