THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 133 man thus encompassed by numbers to defend chap himself many more moments; but at this very L time, as it happened, his charger interposed in the combat* The horse had become so angered by the pressure of the Eussian troop-horses closing in upon his flanks and quarters, that, determining to resent these discourtesies, he began to lash out with his heels, and this so viciously as not only to ward off attacks from the rear, but even in that direction to clear a space. There were four or five Eussians, however, who resolutely addressed themselves to the task of extinguishing Elliot ; and at a moment when he had somewhat over- reached himself in returning the thrust of a Eus- sian trooper — a man with blue-looking nose and a savage, glittering eye — he received a point in the forehead from his hideous adversary. At the same time, another of his assailants divided his face at the centre by a deep -slashing wound, whilst a third dealt a blow on the head which cut through his cocked-hat, and then by the sabre of yet a fourth assailant he was so heavily struck in the part of the skull behind the ear that, irrespec- tively of the mere wound inflicted by the edge of the weapon, his brain felt the weight of the blow.-f* There followed a period of unconsciousness, or rather, perhaps, we should call it, a period erased
- If it had depended upon Elliot himself, I should never have
heard of the circumstances here mentioned. He was an entire stranger to me, and it is to others that I owe the great advan- tage of having been brought into communication with him. t The wound which divided his face was so well sewn up that it has not much marred his good looks.
