BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 233 far-resounding — was of a quality to govern chap. events. " ' It is better, sir, that every man of Her Ma- campbeU's answer to
- iesty's Guards should lie dead ui^on the field tiie sugges-
<> J I- tion that 'than that they should now turn their backs H^^'?^'"'** •^ should fall ' upon the enemy ! ' ^-'ck. Then speaking apart to H.E.H. the Duke of Cambridge, Sir Colin counselled him to go straight on with the Guards, and at the same time he himself undertook to turn the Redoubt by at once moving up with his 42d Regiment. Doubts and questionings ceased. The advance was continued. Sir Colin Campbell rode off to his left. It was upon Sir Colin Campbell now, as on msdis- General BuUer a short time before, that there of the J . Highland devolved the anxious duty of securing the Allied Brigade. armies from any flank attack which might be undertaken against them at a moment when our troops were engaging the enemy in front ; and Sir Colin, at one moment, judged that with the battalion which formed his extreme left lie ought to stand ready to show a front in any direction. He, therefore, sent Sterling to direct that the 79th should go into column.* But, seen in the dim field of battle, an enemy's force bears marked on its front faint, delicate, momentous signs, analogous to those which, in
- It is from a body of troojjs massed in columu that the
greatest variety of manceiivres can he quickly and safely evolved. When a battalion extended in line is called upon to change its front, the radius of the segment in which it must wheel is of course very long.
