A COSTLY VICTORY.
Now followed one of the fiercest and bloodiest episodes of the day.
Wilders had made the best show with his little band and clung
tenaciously to the battery yet. The Russians came on and on, with
stubborn insistence, and all along the line a hand-to-hand fight
ensued. Numbers told at length, and the small garrison was slowly
forced back, after enduring serious loss.
It was in this retreat that General Wilders received a dangerous
wound: a fragment of a shell tore away the left leg below the knee.
"Will some one kindly lift me from my horse?" he said quietly,
schooling his face to continue calm, in spite of the agony he
endured.
McKay was on the ground in an instant and by his general's side.
"Don't mind me, my boy" said the general. "Leave me with the doctors."
"On no account, sir; I should not think of it." "Yes, yes. They want
every man. Attach yourself to Blythe; he will command the brigade now.
Do not stay with me: I insist."
McKay yielded to the general's entreaties, but first saw the wounded
man bestowed in a litter and carried to the rear.
Then he joined Colonel Blythe.
But now fortune smiled again. Our artillery had stayed the Russian
advance; and the Grenadier Guards, followed by the Fusiliers, once
more regained the coveted but worthless stronghold.
They could not hold it permanently, however: the tide of battle ebbed
and flowed across it, and the victory leant alternately to either
side. The Guards fought like giants, outnumbered but never outmatched,
wielding their weapons with murderous prowess, and, when iron missiles
failed them, hurling rocks--Titan-like--at their foes.
Even when won this Sandbag Battery was a perilous prize: tempting the
English leaders to adventure too far to the front and to leave a great
gap in the general line of defence unoccupied and undefended.
Lord Raglan saw the error and would have skilfully averted the
impending evil.
"That opening leaves the left of the Guards exposed," he said to
Airey. "Tell Cathcart to fill it."
"You are to move to the left and support the Guards," was the message
conveyed to Cathcart, "but not to descend or leave the plateau. Those
are Lord Raglan's orders."
But Sir George chose to interpret them his own way, and already--with
Torrens's brigade and a weak body at best--he had gone down the hill
to join the Guards. In the sharp but misdirected encounter which
followed, the general lost his life, and his force, with the Guards,
were for a time cut off from their friends.
A Russian column had wedged in at the gap and for a time forbade
retreat, but it was at length sheered off by the first of the French
reinforcements; and the intercepted British, in greatly diminished
numbers, by degrees won their way home.
This fighting around the Sandbag Battery had cost us very dear:
Cathcart was killed, the Guards were decimated, and Wilders's brigade,
now commanded by Colonel Blythe, had fallen back, spent and
disorganised. So serious indeed were these losses that for the next
hour the brigade possessed no coherent shape, and only by dint of the
unwearied exertions of its officers was it rallied sufficiently to
share in the later phases of the fight.
Meanwhile the centre of our line, where Pennefather stood posted on
the Home Ridge, had been furiously assailed. Gathering their forces
under shelter of a deep ravine, the Russian general sent up column
after column, first against the left and then against the right of the
Ridge. Gravely weakened by his early encounter, Pennefather had only a
handful of his own men to meet this attack. They were now pressed back
indeed, although their general was beginning to wield detachments from
other commands. A portion of the Fourth Division had been put under
his orders.
General Cathcart, just before his death, had come to him with a
battalion of the Rifle Brigade.
"They can do anything," he had said. "Where are they wanted most?"
"Everywhere!" had been old Pennefather's reply.
But now, having at hand this splendid body of infantry, of whom their
leader had been so pardonably proud, he hurled them at the flank of a
column that was forcing back its own men.
The effect of the charge was instantaneous: the Russians could not
withstand it; and, the men of the Second Division again advancing, the
foe was pressed as far as the Barrier, where he was held at bay.
But the left of the ridge was still menaced, although the centre was
cleared. On this flank Pennefather disposed of some new troops, also
of the Fourth Division: the 63rd and part of the 21st.
He rode up to their head and made them a short but stirring address.
"Now, Sixty-third, let's see what metal you are made of! The enemy is
close upon you: directly you see them, fire a volley and charge!"
His answer was a vehement cheer. The 63rd fired as it was ordered, and
then drove the Russians down the hill.
One more trial awaited Pennefather at this period of the battle. His
right, on the Home Ridge, was now assailed; but here again the 20th,
with their famous Minden yell--an old historical war-cry, always
cherished and secretly practised in the corps--met and overcame the
enemy. They were actively supported by the 57th, the gallant
"Diehards," a title they had earned at Albuera, one of the bloodiest
of the Peninsular fights.
Thus, for the second time, Pennefather stood victorious on the ground
he so obstinately held. After two hours of incessant fighting the
Russians had made no headway. But although twice repulsed they had
inflicted terrible losses on our people. They had still in hand
substantial supports untouched; they had brought up more and more
guns; they were as yet far from despondent, and their generals might
still count upon making an impression by sheer weight of numbers
alone.
As for ourselves, the English were almost at the end of their
resources. There were no fresh troops to bring up; only the Third
Division remained in reserve, and it was fully occupied in guarding
the trenches.
The French, it is true, could have thrown the weight of many
thousands into the scale; but General Canrobert had not set his more
distant divisions in motion, and the only troops that could affect the
struggle--Bosquet's--were still far to the rear.
In the contest that was now to be renewed the balance between the
offensive forces was more than ever unequal.
Dannenberg gathered together upon the northern slopes of Mount
Inkerman some 17,000 men, partly those who had been already defeated,
but were by no means disheartened, and partly perfectly fresh troops.
On the other hand, Pennefather's force was reduced to a little over
3,000, to which a couple of French regiments might now be added, 1,600
strong. The Russians had a hundred guns in position; the allies barely
half that number.
Yet in the struggle that was imminent the battle of Inkerman was
practically to be decided.
The Russian general had now resolved to make a concentrated attack in
column upon Pennefather's Ridge. He sent up another great mass from
the quarry ravine, flanked and covered by crowds of skirmishers. In
the centre, the vanguard pressed forward swiftly, drove back the
slender garrison of the Barrier, and advanced unchecked towards the
Ridge. There were no English troops to oppose their advance; a French
battalion only was close at hand, and they seemed to shrink from the
task of opposing the foe.
"They do not seem very firm, these Frenchmen," said Lord Raglan, who
was closely watching events. "Why, gracious goodness, they are giving
way! We must strengthen them by some of our own men. Bring up the
55th--they have re-formed, I see. Stay! what is that?"
As he spoke, an English staff officer was seen to ride up to the
wavering French battalion. From his raised hand and impassioned
gestures he was evidently addressing them. He was speaking in French,
too, it was clear, for his harangue had the effect of restoring
confidence in the shaken body. The battalion no longer stood
irresolute, but advanced to meet the foe.
"Excellently done!" cried Lord Raglan. "Find out for me at once who
that staff-officer is."
An aide-de-camp galloped quickly to the spot, and returned with the
answer--
"Mr. McKay, my lord, aide-de-camp to General Wilders."
"Remember that name, Airey, and see after the young fellow. But where
is his general?"
"Wounded, and gone to the rear, my lord," was the reply.
The bold demeanour of the French battalion restrained the advancing
enemy until some British troops could reach the threatened point. Then
together they met the advance. The Russian attack was now fully
developed, and his great column was well up the slopes of the ridge.
While the French, animated by the warm language of Pennefather,
stopped its head, a mad charge delivered by a small portion of the
55th broke into its flank.
The Russians halted, hesitating under this unexpected attack.
Pennefather instantly saw the check, and gave voice to a loud
"hurrah." The cry was taken up by his men, and the French drums came
to the front and sounded the _pas de charge_. With a wild burst of
enthusiasm, the allies, intermingled, raced forward, and once again
the foe was driven down the hill. At the same time his flanking
columns were met and forced back on the left by the 21st and the 63rd.
The Barrier was again re-occupied by our troops, and the third, the
chief and most destructive Russian onslaught, had also failed.
The day was still young; it was little past 9 a.m., and the battle as
yet was neither lost nor won.
The Russians had been three times discomfited and driven back, but
they still held the ground they had first seized upon the crests of
the Inkerman hill, and, seemingly, defied the allies to dislodge them.
The English were far too weak to do this. Our whole efforts were
concentrated upon keeping the enemy at bay at the Barrier, where
Blythe, now in chief command, managed with difficulty, and with a very
mixed force, to beat off assailants still pertinacious and tormenting.
The French were now coming up in support, but of their troops already
on the ground two battalions had gone astray, wandering off on a
fool's errand towards the pernicious Sandbag Battery, where they, too,
were destined to meet repulse.
Indeed, the Russians, despite their last discomfiture, were regaining
the ascendant.
But now the sagacious forethought of Lord Raglan was to bear
astonishing fruit. It has been told in the previous chapter how he was
bent upon bringing up some of the siege-train guns, and how he had
despatched a messenger for them. His aide-de-camp had found the
colonel of the siege-park artillery anticipating the order. Two
18-pounders, which since Balaclava had been kept ready for instant
service, were waiting to be moved. There were no teams of horses at
hand to drag them up to the front, but the man-harness was brought
out, and the willing gunners cheerily entered the shafts, and threw
themselves with fierce energy into the collars. Officers willingly
lent a hand, and thus the much-needed ordnance was got up a long and
toilsome incline.
It was a slow job, however, and two full hours elapsed before they
were placed in position on the right flank of the Home Ridge.
"At last!" was Lord Raglan's greeting; "now, my lads, load and fire as
fast as you can."
The artillery officers themselves laid their guns, which were served
and fired with promptitude and precision.
Now followed a short but sanguinary duel. The Russian guns answered
shot for shot, and at first worked terrible havoc in our ranks.
Colonel Gambier of the artillery was struck down: other officers were
wounded, and many of the men.
Still Lord Raglan stood his ground, watching the action with keen
interest and the most admirable self-possession. He was perfectly
unmoved by the heavy fire and the carnage it occasioned.
One or two of his staff besought him to move a little further to the
rear, but he met the suggestion with good-natured contempt.
"My lord rather likes being under fire than otherwise," whispered one
aide-de-camp to another.
He certainly took it uncommonly cool, and in the thick of it could
unbend with kindly condescension when a sergeant who was passing had
his forage-cap knocked off by the wind of a passing shot.
"A near thing that, my man," he said, smiling.
The sergeant--it was Hyde, returning from the Barrier, where he had
been with more ammunition--coolly dusted his cap on his knee, replaced
it on his head, and then, formally saluting the Commander-in-Chief,
replied with a self-possession that delighted Lord Raglan--
"A miss is as good as a mile, my lord."
Through all this the 18-pounders kept up a ceaseless and effective
fire. They were clearly of a heavier calibre than any the Russians
owned, and soon the weight of their metal and our gunners' unerring
aim began to tell upon the enemy's ranks.
The Russian guns were frequently shifted from spot to spot, but they
could not escape the murderous fire.
At last, in truth, the Russian hold on Inkerman hill was shaken to the
core.
Victory at last was in our grasp, and, but for the old and fatal
drawback of insufficient numbers, the battle must have ended in a
complete disaster for the Russian arms. A vigorous offensive,
undertaken by fresh troops, must have ended in the speedy overthrow,
possibly annihilation, of the enemy.
But the only troops available for the purpose were the French. Bosquet
had now come up with his brigade, and D'Autemarre, released by
Gortschakoff's retreat, had followed with a second. There were thus
some seven or eight thousand French available. Still Canrobert was
disinclined to move.
He was now with Lord Raglan on the Ridge, with his arm in a sling, for
he had just been struck by a shrapnel-shell.
He was downcast and dejected, for Bosquet had gone off on a wild-goose
chase after two errant battalions, and had shared in their repulse.
Just now, indeed, so far from proving the saviours of the hard-pressed
English, our French allies were themselves in retreat.
Lord Raglan strove to reassure his colleague.
"All is going well, my general," he said; "we are winning the day."
"I wish I could think so," replied Canrobert.
"Well, but listen to the message my aide-de-camp has brought from
General Pennefather. What did he say, Calthorpe?"
"General Pennefather, my lord, says he only wants a few fresh troops
to follow the enemy up now, and lick them to the devil. These are his
very words, my lord."
Lord Raglan laughed heartily, and translated his stout-hearted
lieutenant's language literally for Canrobert.
"Ah! what a brave man!" cried the French general, lighting up. "A
splendid general, a most valiant man."
"You see now, general; one more effort and the day is ours. Won't you
help?"
"But, my lord, what can I do? The Russians are all round us still, and
in great strength. See there, there, and there," he cried, pointing
with his unwounded arm.
"Tell General Pennefather to come and speak to me at once," Lord
Raglan now said to the aide-de-camp, hoping that the gallant bearing
of the victorious veteran would infuse fresh hope in Canrobert.
Now General Pennefather galloped up, as radiantly happy as any
schoolboy who has just finished his fifteenth round.
"I should like to press them, my lord. They are retreating already,
and we could give a fine account of them."
"What have you left to pursue with?" asked Lord Raglan, still hoping
to encourage the French to undertake the offensive.
"Seven or eight hundred now, in the first brigade alone."
"To pursue thousands!" exclaimed Canrobert, when this was interpreted
to him; "you must be mad! I will have nothing to do with this; we have
done enough for one day."
Now again, as on the Alma, when the heights had been carried by storm,
the fruits of victory were lost by our unenterprising, over-cautious
allies.
This, indeed, is the true story of Inkerman, as told on incontestable
evidence of the great historian of the war. The French did not rescue
the English from disaster; they were themselves repulsed. At the close
of the action, when they might have actively pursued, their
irresolution robbed the victory of its most decisive results.
It was a terrible and far too costly victory, after all. The English
army, already terribly weak, suffered such serious losses in the fight
that there were those who would have at once re-embarked the remnants
and raised the siege. Retreat on the morrow of victory would have been
craven indeed, but to stand firm with such shattered forces was a bold
and hazardous resolve, for which Lord Raglan deserves the fullest
credit, and the coming winter, with its terrible trials, was destined
to put his self-reliance to the proof.
It is time to return more particularly to our friends, who took part
in this hard-fought, glorious action.
By midday the worse part of the battle was over, and although Colonel
Blythe still clung to his Barrier, whence he launched forth small
parties to harass the retreating foe, McKay was released of his
attendance upon the acting brigadier, and suffered to follow his own
general to the rear.
They had carried poor old Wilders in a litter to one of the hospital
marquees in the rear of the Second Division camp. The aide-de-camp
found him perfectly conscious, with two doctors by his side.
McKay was allowed to enter into conversation with his chief.
"How does it go?" asked the old general, feebly, but with eager
interest.
"The enemy are in full retreat, sir; beaten all along the line."
"Thank Heaven!" said the general, as he sank back upon his pillow.
"How are you, sir?"
"Very weak. My fighting days are done."
"You must not say that, sir; the doctors will soon pull you round.
Won't you?" said McKay, looking round at the nearest surgeon's face.
"Of course. I have no fear, provided only the general will keep quiet,
and--"
"That means that I should go," said the aide-de-camp. "I shall be
close at hand, sir, for I mean to be chief nurse," and he left the
tent.
Outside the surgeon ended the sentence he had left incomplete.
"The general," he said, "will be in no immediate danger if we could
count upon his having proper care. With that, I think we could promise
to save his life."
"He shall have the most devoted attention from me," began McKay.
"We know that. But he wants more: the very best hospital treatment,
with all its comforts and appliances; and how can we possibly secure
these here on this bleak plateau?"
Just then one of the general's orderlies came in sight and approached
McKay.
"A letter, sir, for the general, marked 'Immediate.'"
"The general can attend to no correspondence. You know he has been
desperately wounded."
"Yes, sir, but the messenger would not take that for an answer."
"Who is he?"
"A seaman from Balaclava, belonging to some yacht that has just
arrived."
"Lord Lydstone's perhaps. That would indeed be fortunate," went on
McKay, turning to the doctor. "It is the general's cousin, you know;
and on board the yacht--if we could get him there?"
"That is not impossible, I think. In fact, it would have to be done."
"Well, on board the yacht he would get the careful nursing you speak
of. Is he well enough, do you think, to read this letter?"
"Under the circumstances, yes. Give it me, and I will take it in to
the general."
A few minutes later McKay was again called in to the marquee.
"Oh, McKay, I wish you would be so good--" began the wounded man.
"This letter, I mean, is from Mrs. Wilders; she has just arrived."
"Here, in the Crimea, sir?"
"Yes, she has come up in Lord Lydstone's yacht, and I want you to be
so good as to go to her and break the news." He pointed sadly down the
bed towards his shattered limb.
"Of course, sir, as soon as I can order out a fresh horse I will go to
Balaclava. Perhaps I had better stay on board for a time, and make
arrangements to receive you; if Lord Lydstone will allow me, that is
to say."
"Lord Lydstone is not there. Mrs. Wilders tells me she has come up
alone, and in the very nick of time. But now be off, McKay, and lose
no time. Be gentle with her: it will be a great shock, I am afraid."
The aide-de-camp galloped off on his errand, and finding a boat from
the yacht waiting by the wharf in Balaclava harbour he put up his
horse and went off to the _Arcadia_. She was still lying outside.
McKay's appearance was not exactly presentable. He had been turned out
at daybreak with the rest of the division at the first alarm, and had
had no time to attend to his toilette, such as it was in these rough
campaigning days. Since then he had been in his saddle for several
hours and constantly in the heat and turmoil of the fight. His clothes
were torn, mud-encrusted, and bloodstained; his face was black and
grimy with gunpowder smoke.
But he had no thought of his looks as he sprang on to the white,
trimly-kept deck of the yacht.
Captain Trejago met him.
"Who are you?" asked the sailing-master, rather abruptly.
"I wish to see Mrs. Wilders," replied McKay, still more curtly.
"You had better wash your face first," said Captain Trejago, very
jealous of the proper respect due to Mrs. Wilders. "It is uncommonly
dirty."
"And so would yours be if you had been doing what I have."
"What might that be?"
"Fighting."
"Perhaps you are ready to begin again? If so, I'm your man. But you
will have to wait till we get on shore."
"Pshaw! don't be an idiot. We have been engaged with the Russians ever
since daybreak. But there, this is mere waste of breath. I tell you I
want to see Mrs. Wilders. I come from the general. I am his
aide-de-camp. Show the way, will you?"
"It may be as you say," muttered Trejago, not half satisfied. "But you
will have to wait till Mrs. Wilders says she will receive you."
"What's the matter? Who is this person?"
It was the voice of Mrs. Wilders, who now advanced from the stern of
the yacht, having seen but not overheard the latter part of the
altercation.
McKay stepped forward.
"I have brought you a message from the general."
"Why did he not come himself?"
"It was quite impossible."
"I particularly begged him to come. Who, pray, are you? Stay!" she
went on, "I ought to know your face. We have met before: at Gibraltar,
was it not?"
"Yes, at Gibraltar. I was the general's orderly sergeant."
"And do you still hold the same distinguished position?"
"No, Mrs. Wilders," said McKay, simply; "I am now a commissioned
officer, and have the honour to be the general's aide-de-camp."
"Rapid promotion that: I hope you deserved it. May I ask your name?"
"McKay--Stanislas McKay."
Could it be possible? The very man she was in search of the first to
speak to her on arrival here at Balaclava! Surely there must be some
mistake! Mastering her emotion at the suddenness of this news, she
said--
"You will forgive my curiosity, but have you any other Christian
names?"
"My name in full is Stanislas Anastasius Wilders McKay."
"That answer is my best excuse for asking you the question. You are,
then, our cousin?"
McKay bowed.
"I have heard of you," said Mrs. Wilders. "Allow me to congratulate
you," and she held out her hand.