the men were observed eagerly to seek for and pluck the ripe grapes, whose tempting clusters hung in profusion on the vines through which they had to pass. The losses referred to in the last paragraph quoted from Lord Eaglan's Despatch, were indeed terrific; but it was not until the gallant Light Division had already crowned the height, and forced the redoubt, that physical exhaustion and numerical weakness compelled them partially to retire. The 95th regiment, which was immediately on the right of the 7th, suffered equally with the Light Division, and the melancholy fate of two of its officers, brothers, who were shot down within a few minutes of each other, supplies one of the saddest incidents of the history of the campaign, but one which is, alas! by no means a solitary one. " The 55th, 30th, and 95th," says Mr. Kussell, " led by Brigadier Pennefather, who was in the thickest of the fight, cheering on his men, again and again were checked indeed, but never drew back in their onward progress, which was marked by a fierce roll of Minie musketry. The 7th Fusiliers, led by Colonel Yea, were swept down by fifties." " In the capture of the battery," says General Torrens, writing to the father of one of the officers who fell there, " the poor dear old Welsh (the 23rd) were foremost. Their loss has been frightful. Chester (their Colonel), Wynn, Evans, Conolly, my poor sister's boy, Harry Anstruther, Butler, Eadcliffe, Young, were all killed dead at the same moment, and within a space of 100 square yards. Applethwaite (it is feared mortally), Campbell, Sayer, Bathurst, Stopton, wounded; only six officers remain untouched, and nearly 200 men are hors de combat." Sir George Brown, who was in front of his division, cheering on his men, had his horse shot under him, and was for a moment supposed to be killed.
" By this time, however, the Duke of Cambridge had succeeded in crossing the river, and had moved up in support, and a brilliant advance of the brigade of Foot Guards, under Major-General Bentinck, drove the enemy back and secured the final possession. The Highland brigade, under Sir Colin Campbell, advanced in admirable order and steadiness up the high ground to the left, and in co-operation with the Guards; and Major-General Pennefather' s brigade, which had been connected with the right of the Light Division, forced the enemy completely to abandon the position they had taken such pains to defend and secure."
This brilliant advance of the Guards was indeed the turning point, and the decisive moment of the battle. The Light Division, after gaining the redoubt, thinned in numbers, and exhausted by the toilsome ascent of the heights, received a withering volley from a mass of Russians posted above it, and who had been mistaken for French, and were compelled to abandon their hard-won conquest. As they retired down the hill, they met the advancing Guards, who were compelled to reserve their fire, to avoid destroying their in
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own comrades, and, one of the broken regiments falling back upon the Fusilier Guards, threw that corps into considerable confusion, during which it sustained a terrific loss both in officers and men. In spite of these disadvantages, however, the rest of the brigade continued its ascent of the now blood-stained heights, amidst sights and sounds of the most appaUing description, in such steady order, and with such cool determination, as gave to the storming of a fearfully strong position all the aspect of a perfect parade movement. The enthusiasm of the men was indescribable. " Unless I had seen it," says an Officer of the Guards in writing home, "I could not have believed the indomitable pluck of our wounded and dying. As we advanced, we passed a poor fellow with both his legs shot off. He threw a handful of dust in the air, and said ' God bless you, Guards; give it to them, my boys.' And our surgeon told me that not a single wounded man complained, and that only one man required brandy to sustain the operation."
Another account takes up the story at this point: " Not a shot did they (the Guards) fire till within from 150 to 200 yards of the intrenchments. A battery of eighteen and twenty-four pounders was in our front, and a swarm of riflemen behind it. Fortunately the enemy's fire was much too high, passing close over our heads; the men who were here killed being all hit on the crown of the head. When we got about fifty yards from the intrenchment the enemy turned tail, leaving us masters of the battery and the day."