Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/323

THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 301 his seventy horsemen. Upon their close approach chap. some of the Russian Lancers turned and made off; ' but the rest stood their ground and received the jj^hf f{£ e shock prepared for them. By that shock, how- j^cere. ever, they were broken and overthrown. It is true that in the moment of the impact, or in the moments immediately following, men had, some of them, a fleeting opportunity for the use of the sword or the lance, and one at least of our Hus- sars received a great number of slight wounds from the enemy's spearheads ; but the clash was brief. The whole of these three Russian squad- rons were quickly in retreat, a part of them going back into the fold betwixt the Causeway Heights, from which just before they had issued, whilst the rest fled across to the Fedioukine Hills ; and there is reason for inferring that these last at- tached themselves to the other three squadrons of their regiment which had been posted, as we saw, on the northern side of the valley. After having thus conquered their way through sheweirc the body of Lancers opposed to them, Colonel Shewell and those who had followed him in his victorious charge could see a good way up the valley ; but their eyes searched in vain for an English force advancing to their support ; and, in truth, the very attempt which Jeropkine's Lancers had just been making, went far to show that no English succours were near ; for it is evident that the endeavour to cut off our horsemen by showing a front towards the Russian rear would never have been made by troops which were able to see a red