Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/143

THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 121 This meant, it seems, that instead of opposing his chaJ body to that of the islander with such rigid deter- '_. mination as to necessitate a front-to-front clash, and a front-to-front trial of weight and power, the ibreigner who might be steadfast enough to keep his place in the foremost rank of the assailed mass would still be so far yielding as to let the intruder thrust past him and drive a way into the column. Whatever was the foundation for this superb faith, the phrase, as above interpreted, represents with a singular exactness what the front rank of the Eussian column now did. Being physically barred towards their rear by their own dense and close-pressing squadrons, these horsemen could not fall back under the impact of the charge ; and, on the other hand, they did not so plant themselves as to be each of them a directly oppos- ing hindrance to an assailant. They found and took a third course. They 'accepted the files.'" Here, there, and almost everywhere along the as- sailed part of the column, the troopers who stood in front rank so sidled and shrank that they suf- fered the Grey or the Inniskillinger to tear in between them with a licence accorded to a can- non-ball which is seen to be coming, and must not be obstructed, but shunned. So, although, by their charge, these few horsemen could deliver no blow of such weight as to shake the depths of column to Scarlett's 'three hundred.' Lord Seaton — Colonel Colborne of the illustrious 52d Regiment — was one of those who handed down the phrase to a later generation.