Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/301

BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 275 march of a lew hundred paces on a hillside, and ciiAP. with all this seeming ease and grace, that the last . of the work is done whereby nation gains the mastery over nation ? Well, the truth is that, before it comes to a struggle like this, a State waging war may have to bear cruel losses — losses at sea, losses b}' pes- tilence and famine ; losses also inflicted by the enemy before he consents to give battle with his infantry upon open ground ; and it might happen to a nation to have to go through a campaign without coming once to the strife for which her people are fitted ; but when at last, after many an obstacle vanquished, after many a tormenting delay, the English array of two deep is suffered to reach open ground, and there measures its strength with gross columns, then the annals of our country have taught us that, unless there be an almost overwhelming disparity of numbers, there ought to be no misgiving about what will be the end of the fight. XXXIV. On the western slopes of the Kourgane Hill, no step, that I know of, was taken for covering Scots Fusilier Guards. Besides the casualties occurring to officers, which have been mentioned elsewhere, Cust of the Coldstream and Abercrombie of the 93d were killed, and Baring of the Coldstream was wounded. Cust was a man so much be- loved b}' his friends, that when I was going to the Crimea in 1869 several of them abked me to try to find his grave. I found it ; and a lovelier grave there could not be. It was on the right bank of the Alma, and richly overgrown with * the ' flowers of the field.'