Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/180

136 THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN. CHAP. VI. 1<( Period. Egerton's unrelenting imrsuit. turned savagely ou tlieir pursuers, and engaged them — sometimes with advantage — in obstinate hand-to-hand fights. On its flanks more especi- ally, as may well be supposed, the men of the 77th felt the stress of the hostile numbers in which they had buried their slender, broken line; and how it fared with Captain Nicholson and his men when they engulfed themselves in a host of Eussian soldiery we have already in some measure seen. On the right, though no turning movement there augmented the peril, our people, during some moments, were put to many a hard struggle for life, and Captain Willis (who had led his grenadier company in their charge, springing foremost into the melley) became so encompassed by numbers of obstinate assailants that he was only saved in the end by dint of strenuous fighting, and the loyal rush of some men who flew in apt time to the rescue. The tumult was lasting, but never stationary, and always, though slowly, it moved from the south to the north. Down the last of the slopes descending from the English Heights, and along the south-western skirts of the Saddle-top Eeach, and thence on to where the ground rose towards the line of Eussian batteries, the broken column retreated, and retreated always in torment, for the pursuers hung fastened on their prey, and were tearing still at its life. The Eussians, who had thrown themselves down that they might seem like the dead, were careful of course to lie still whilst the English