Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/180

158 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. CHAP, component, was not altogether motionless. It heaved; and, this time, as has been already learnt — for we come once again to a moment before spoken of — the swaying of the mass, which before had been to and fro, was perceptibly in the up- hill direction — in the direction that had been given it (as some imagined) by the impact of Captain Hunt's charge, and the weight of the fugitive troops driven in upon the front of the column. It would seem, therefore — for otherwise the swaying of the mass in an up-hill direction could hardly have gone on so continuously — that already the pressure of the squadrons which formed the centre and rear of the column must have been loosening. The 4th And this might well be; for in another quar- Gua?ds n ter, the attack of the 4th Dragoon Guards was now taking effect. Captain Forster, with the right squadron of the regiment, had already charged into the melley which was gathered on the right flank of the column ; whilst farther up the hillside, but acting in the same direction against the enemy's right flank, Colonel Hodge, having charged in person at the head of the left squadron of his regiment, and having burst his way into the column, was driving fast through it from Hank to flank — driving through it with- out losing men — and so faithfully working out the old precept of ' hard all across ! ' as to be already on the point of emerging from the mass of the Russian cavalry at a spot opposite to the one by which he had entered it.