While this conflict took place on the bridge, the other column again attacked the French right. This time they came on in such a swarm that they could neither be kept back by the aqueduct, nor cowed by the Sardinian guns, which were ploughing long lanes through their scattered lines. On they came, as it seemed, ii-resistible, and rushed up the steep hill with such fury that the Zouaves, who lined the sides of it, were obliged to fall back for a moment before the multitude. You could plainly see the officers leading the way, and animating their soldiers. I particularly observed one gallant fellow, who, at least twenty yards in advance of the whole column, was the &st across the aqueduct, and I saw him still on the side of the hill.
This furious rush brought the advancing column in an incredibly short time to the crest of the hillock, where it stopped to form. But the French had not been idle during the time that the Russians were ascending the hill. The Zouaves had only fallen back from the side of the hillock to the main body, which had been drawn up behind the top. Scarcely did the column of the enemy show its head, when the guns opened on it with grape, and a mm'derous fire was poured down upon it by the French infantry. This immediately stopped the advance of the column, which began to waver, but the impetus from those behind was so powerful that the head of it, notwithstanding the unexpected reception, was pushed forward a few yards more, when the French, giving one mighty cheer, rushed upon the advancing enemy, who, shaken already, immediately tui-ned round and ran down, if possible, faster than they had come up.
But the mass was so great that all the hurry could not save them, and more than 200 prisoners were taken on the spot, while the hill-side, the banks of the aqueduct, the aqueduct itself, and the river-side Avere filled with the dead and the wounded. The Sardinian and French artillery poured, moreover, a murderous cross-fire into the scattered remains of the column, of which scarcely a shot missed. It was a complete rout. The French rashetl clown the hill-side and di'ove them far across the plain. This defeat seems to have so completely cowed them that nothing more was attempted against this side. Not so on the bridge. Notwithstanding the heavy loss suffered by the second attack, the Russians once more concentrated all their forces, collected the scattered remains of the column which had been routed on the right of the French position, and brought up all their reserves to attempt one more attack.
They again crossed the river, and the aqueduct too, and tried to take the heights — but in vain; the French were now thoroughly prepared, and the tenacity of the Russians only served to augment their losses. They were soon seen flying in all directions, followed by the French. This last attack was decisive, and immediately the usual Russian preparation for I'ctrcat — namely, the advance of the artillery — showed clearly that the Russians acknowledged themselves defeated and were on the point of retiring. Three batteries, each of twelve guns, which during the greatest part of the attack had been nearly silent, began to open their fire while the scattered remains of the infantry columns rallied behind a rising ground leading up towards the plateau of Ayker, or Mackenzie's height.
The Sai'dinians, who, with the exception of the little outpost fight on the opposite side of the Tchernaya, had confined themselves to support the French by their admirable artillery, which entirely subdued the Russian fire on the opposite plateaux, began now to move across the aqueduct. The Russian riflemen after the last defeat on the right, had retired behind the banks of the Tchernaya, whence they kept up a brisk but ineffective fire. A battalion of Piedmontese, preceded by a company of Bersaglieri, advanced in beautiful order as if on parade, and soon drove these riflemen from their position. It even advanced some way towards the plateaux; but, as it was not intended to force the heights, it contented itself, supported by other troops, with following the enemy, who was already in full retreat.