Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/132

110 THK BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. CHAP. I. Russian officer in front of the column time advancing; but the impediments of the camping-ground proved of course more obstruct- ing to the serried ranks of the Greys than to 8 horseman with only one companion and two at- tendants. Scarlett could not question that the distance between him and his squadrons had be- come extravagantly great ; but still judging, as he had judged from the first, that it was of vital moment to strike the enemy's column whilst halted, he rather desired to accelerate the Greys than much to retard his own pace. Therefore, still pressing forward, though not quite so swiftly as before, he turned partly round in his saddle, shouted out a ' Come on ! ' to the Greys, and in- voked them with a wave of his sword. When the squadrons attained to clear ground, they began to reduce the space which divided them from their leader ; but it is computed that, at the moment of Scarlett's first contact with the enemy's column, the distance between him and the squadrons which followed him was still, at the least, fifty yards. The Brigadier now found himself nearing the front of the column at a point very near its centre, and the spot at which Scarlett thus rode was marked by the presence of a Eussian officer who sat erect in his saddle some few paces in front of his people, and confronting the English intruder. Scarlett by this time was charging up at high speed, and, conjoined with the swiftness thus ittained, the weight of a sixteen - h a nds horse