Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/398

354 THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN. CHAP. VI. 3d Period. their diagonal advance into the central part of the field: their en- gagement with troops there as- sembled. at first — swept on driving all before them. Still fronting towards the north-east (as they had done when beginning their charge), they held on diagon- ally across no small part of the battle-field, till their line was at length astride the Post-road, the 63d on the right of the road, and the wing of the 21st on the left. Even then, they did not long halt, but the direction of their continued advance so far changed as to lose all its eastward tendency, and they now moved due north along both the sides of the Post-road. These 600 men in effect had so ordered their course of action that having first overthrown the whole force which encountered them in their appointed part of the battle-field, they afterwards crossed obliquely into the ' fighting ground ' of other troops, and were now the foremost of the Allied infantry in that central part of the field by which the great trunk column had advanced and retreated. They here found themselves closely confronted by heavy bodies of Russians which had ceased to retreat, and were undertaking, as it seemed, to make an obstinate stand. Our people still pressing forward, the enemy's masses gave way ; but, this time, with evident reluctance, and, even when the columns had yielded, there remained many clusters of in- dignant soldiery standing out against the shame of retreating, and trying to hold their ground. The enemy at one moment tried to make a stand at the Barrier by defending it from the reverse or