Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/186

156 TRANSACTIONS maiued so faithiul to this his covenant with him- self, that even by acute illness he could uot be kept out of action. When he lay upon the sick- bed, if it chanced that the Arabs or the Kabyles were offering any prospect of a fight upon ground within reach of the hospital, he almost always managed to drag his helpless, tortured body towards the scene of the conflict ; and this lie would do, not with an idea of being able to take an active part, but simply in order that the list of officers present might not fail to comprise his name. At the storming of Constantine, however, he really helped to govern the event ; for when a great explosion took place, and many were l)lown into the air, the French soldiers ran back with a cry that all was ruined ; but Bedeau and Combes, withstanding the madness of the common terror, strove hard to rally the crowd ; and St Arnaud having with him in his company of the Legion some bold reckless outcasts of the North, he bethought him of the shout, very strange to the ears of Frenchmen, which he had heard in other climes. Skilled in the art of imitation, he uttered the warlike cr3^ Instantly from the Northmen around him, Mhether Germans, or Swedes, or Englisli, Scots, Irisli, or Danes, there sprang their native ' Hurrah ! ' and with it came the thronging of men who must and would go forward. It was mainly the torrent of this new onslaught by St Arnaud and liis men of the 'stormy youlli' which carried the breach, and brought about the full of the city.