Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/333

THE MAIN FIGHT. 289 having no supports with which to hold fast an chaf. advantage once gained, and the Enssians, on their ' .. part, not proving irresolute, there resulted, for ^d/'erio^. some time, that swaying to and fro which is the characteristic of hard and close infantry fighting in modern battles. In such a conflict, if long continued, weight of numbers could not but tell, and after a while, the alternations of the swaying movement began to disclose on the whole a slow progress southward ; for in general, after charging and defeating the foremost of its antagonists, the little band of the Thirtieth was sooner or later forced back by the other encompassing soldiery among.st wln^n it had penetrated, and these re- coils, taken together, extended over more ground than all the intervening attacks. In this way, at length, after a foot to foot re- The soth sistance lonec maintained against heavy cohimns lengui by only a few score of soldiery, the men of Maul- back to the erestwork. everer s force were pressed back and back till they found themselves at last behind the erestwork on the top of Home Ridge, and aligning with other fractions of their Regiment under Major PatuUo. By that time, their bodil}' fatigue had become so great that the belt of ground where they lay was to them a very haven of rest, and they tlioiight with gratitude of Colonel Percy Herbert, to whose zeal and forethought the erestwork mainly owed its creation. These brave men, if absolved for a The mo- moment from the toil of close lighting, were still resttiiey in a hot part of the battle-field, under constant artillery-fire, and liable, as the event soon proved, VOL. VI. T