Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/265

THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 243 heavy loss all the time from the double flank fire chap, through which they were moving ; and yet did not (as did ultimately the first line) come under such stress of battle as to be warranted in cut- ting short their probation by a vehement and un- controlled rush. Throughout their whole course down the valley the officers and the men of the 11th Hussars, the 4th Light Dragoons, and the 8th Hussars never judged themselves to be absolved from the hard task of maintaining their formation, and patiently enduring to see their ranks torn, without having means for the time of even trying to harm their destroyers. These three regiments, moreover, were subjected to another kind of trial from which the first line was exempt ; for men not only had (as had had the first line) to see numbers torn out of their ranks, and then close up and pass on, but were also compelled to be witnesses of the havoc that battle had been mak- ing with their comrades in front. The ground they had to pass over was thickly strewn with men and horses lying prostrate in death, or from wounds altogether disabling ; but these were less painful to see than the maimed officers or soldiers, still able to walk or to crawl, and the charger moving horribly with three of his limbs, whilst dragging the wreck of the fourth, or convulsively labouring to rise from the ground by the power of the forelegs when the quarters had been shattered by round-shot. And, although less distressing to see, the horses which had just lost their riders without being