Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/383

TilK MAIN FIGHT. 339 officers were preparing to make a stand at this chap. spot, when a field - officer, whose name is un- ^^' known, called out suddenly, 'Ketire!' He re- -di'erioit. peated this order several times, and then rode uiefeW 11 rm 1 English hack at a gallop. i hereupon, as was natural, uoopsin 1 , 1 P 1 nn -1 this part of the men connected the words of the oiiicer with theueii. the example he seemed to be giving them, and at once began to run ; but Bellairs said, ' Don't ' run, men ! ' and, other officers repeating his words, the greater part of the soldiers were promptly restrained, and thenceforth ceased to move otherwise than at a walk. When ordered, however, by Bellairs to keep up their firing, they could only answer, ' We have no ammunition, ' sir.' Without means of firing themselves, they yet had to move under ceaseless blasts of mus- ketry which struck down some of their number, and almost made it seem strange that their de- struction should so long remain incomplete ; for, wherever they looked, they saw the twigs and the shivering leaves of the brushwood cut and tossed by the pelting lead ; but, on the other hand, they now found themselves sheltered from artillery-fire by the close presence of the pursuing colunm, and, upon the whole, this change was felt as a relief. Other knots of our soldiery became linked in retreat with the troo])s near Bellairs, liiiuging up their full number to nearly, perhaps, 200 ; and amongst the accessions on the right — [iroper right — of our line was that score of men under Vaughan (clnefly men of the ' 20th ' and Giiardsmen), whom we saw doing venturesome