As though some giant rock advanced into the sea, and forced back tlie agitated waters that buffeted it, so did the Russian columns press down against the spray of soldiery which fretted their edge with fire and steel, and contended in vain against their weight. The struggling band was forced back by the enemy, who moved on, crushing friend and foe beneath their solid tramp. Bleeding, panting, and exhausted, ommen lay in heaps in the ditch beneath the parapet, sheltered themselves behind stones and in bomb craters in the external slope of the work, or tried to pass back to our advanced parallel and sap, having to run the gauntlet of a tremendous fire. Many of them lost their lives, or were seriously wounded in this attempt.
The scene in the ditch was appalling, although some of the officers have assured me that they and the men were laughing at the precipitation with which many brave and gallant fellows did not hesitate to plunge headlong upon the mass of bayonets, muskets, and sprawling soldiers — the ladders Avere all knocked down or broken so that it was difficult for the men to scale the other side, and the dead, the dying, the wounded, and the uninjured, were all lying in piles together. The Russians came out of the embrasures, plied them with stones, grajie shot, and the bayonet, but were soon forced to retire by the fire of our batteries and riflemen, and under cover of this fire a good many of our men escaped to the approaches.
In some instances the Russians persisted in remaining outside, in order to plunder the bodies of those who were lying on the slope of the parapet, and paid the penalty of their rashness in being stretched beside their foes; but others came forth on a holier errand, and actually brought water to our wounded. If this last act be true, it is but right to discredit the story that the Russians placed our wounded over the magazine in the rear of the Redan, near the 15arrack Battery, ere they fired it — the only foundation for which report, as far as I can discover, is, that many of the bodies of our men found in the Redan were dreadfully scorched and burnt; but there were many Russians lying there in a similar state.
General Pelissier observed the failure of our attack from the rear of the Malakhoff, and sent over to General Simpson to ask if he intended to renew it. The English Commander-in-Chief is reported to have replied that he did not then feel in a condition to do so. All this time the Guards and Highlanders, the Third and Fourth Divisions, and most of the reserves had not been engaged. They could, indeed, have furnished materials for making another assault, but the subsequent movements of the Russians render it doubtful whether the glory of carr^'ing the Redan, and of redeeming the credit of our arms, would not have been dearly purchased by the effusion of more valuable blood. As soon as we abandoned the assaTilt the firing slackened along our front, but in the rear of the Malakhoff there was a fierce contest going on between masses of Russians, now released fi'om the Redan, or dx-awn from the town, and the F'rench inside the work; and the fight for the Little Redan, on the proper left of the Malakhoff", was raging furiously.
Clouds of smoke and dust obstructed the view, but the rattle of musketry was incessant, and betokened the severe nature of the struggle below. Through the breaks in the smoke there could be seen now and then a tricolour, surmounted by an eagle, fluttering bravely over the inner parapet of the JMalakhoff. The storm of battle rolled fiercely round it, and beat against it; but it was sustained by strong arms and stout hearts, and all the assaults of the enemy were directed in vain against it. We could see, too, our noble allies swai-ming over into the Malakhoff, from their splendid approaches to it from the Mamelon, or rushing with speed towards the right, where the Russians, continually reinforced, sought in vain to beat back their foes, and to regain the key of their position.