THE MAIN FIGHT. 241 gate masses, many separate personal combats were chap. sustained by private soldiers of the Guards. '__ Before liearing of these, one should ^uard one's ^di^erwd. o ' '^ _ Causes of self against unjust conclusions by acknowledging *'/^^ ^■^°®°'^- that the two opposed armies were not made up of ^y o.i^^; such elements that they could afford means of fair '" "'eir •^ separate comparison between the individual Kussian and "st3. the individual Englishman : for the first had been one in a gang of weeping peasantry seized, shaven, and torn from their homes by ruthless power; the other, a sturdy recruit, choosing freely the pro- fession of arms, and now realising, perhaps, on the Ledgeway, the favourite dreams of bis boyhood. A.nd, there is yet another reason which helps to show why it was that our people in their man to man struggles got the better one after another of antagonists as strong as themselves. The Eussian, like other foot soldiers, had been trained to use his weapon in the way appropriate to aggregate action ; and, remaining under the sway of long barrack-yard lessons, he tried to maintain personal conflicts by lowering his weapon and bringing it ' down to the charge ; ' whilst the Guardsman on the contrary had been trained by our ' bayonet ' drill ' to make liis weapon serve for close con- flict l)y raising it first high and far back over his right shoulder, and then making the thrust, which, by arms acting thus at advantage, could be de- livered with great power.*
- Mr James Bancroft — the combatant whose name frequently
occurs in these pages— was so good as to give me the great advantage of a personal interview ; and from him I received a VOL. VI. Q
