290 THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN CHAP, to be attacked by infantry ; but Nature can be • divinely imperious when she ordains perfect rest 2(1 Period, ['q^ the weary. There were many who slept. Continued The mass which had been thus obstinately re- ad vanoe • . 1 1 -H/r 1 > 1 • • of the sisted by Mauleverers people was pursuing its lakoutsk , , , , , 1 . . column : deaiiy earned advantage, and making its way up the slopes of Home Ridge, when Pennefather launched against it the left wing of Horsford's Rifle battalion — a fresh and united body with a strength of some 140 men * The wing formed already in line advanced through our guns, and was presently confronted by the enemy at short till attacked distaiicc. During a minute or two, both column and defeated i • i hy a wing of and line stood face to face firing their hottest ; but Horsford's ® ' Hific then the column began to fall back, and was close- liatt-ilion. ° ly pursued by the Rifles. The Russians, if not dispersed, were still so far broken up that the spectacle they presented was that of a force retreating in numbers of large, heavy clumps. Whether most of their people then falling were men really stricken, or whether there were some who ' downcharged ' in avoidance of the balls that pursued them, they at all events dropped in large numbers under the fire of the Rifles ; and the column, now driven back into the Quarry Ravine, left the ground in its wake thickly strewn with the prostrate soldiery of Russia. Numbers of them were in a state of great terror, imagining that they would be put to death by the victors.
- I.e., half the battalion, which had a strength of 278.
Colonel Horsford himself, as we saw, acted with the right wing of his battalioji.
