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The scantiness of his numbers was not of itself a fatal CHAP. V. bar to the prospect of conquering by impact; but he was so circumstanced as to be obliged to charge uphill and over ground much impeded in some places by the picket-ropes and other remains of the camp. Nor was this the worst. The vast depth of the column forbade all prospect of shattering it by a blow; for even though the troopers in front might shrink, and incline to give way under the shock of a charge, they would be physically prevented from making a step to the rear by the massiveness of the squadrons behind them.

ed attack

might be,

But, however desperate the task of Scarlett's three However desperate hundred dragoons, no one of them seems to have the intendquestioned that it was right to attack; and, the element of doubt being thus altogether excluded, they at least had that strength which belongs to tioned men acting with a resolute purpose.

Except in the instances of combats under the walls of besieged fortresses, it can rarely occur that armies, or large portions of armies, are not only so near and so well placed for the purpose of seeing, but also so unoccupied with harder tasks as to be able to study a combat going on under their eyes; and still more rare must be the occasions which modern warfare allows for seeing a conflict rage without looking through a curtain of smoke; but, besides our Light Cavalry Brigade which stood near at hand, there had gathered large numbers of military observers-in

no one seems to have ques

that it was right.

The great

numbers

of military

spectators

who were

witnesses

of the

combat.

V.

Distinc

tive col

uniforms

worn by the Rus

the English dragoons.

CHAP. cluding French, English, and Turks—who, being at the edge of the Chersonese upland, were on ground so inclined as to be comparable to that from which tiers upon tiers of spectators in a Roman amphitheatre used to overlook the arena; and the ledges of the hillside were even indeed of such form as to invite men to sit whilst they gazed. The means that people ours of the had of attaining to clear perceptions were largely increased by the difference that there was between the sians and colour of the Russian and that of the English squadrons. With the exception of a few troops which showed their uniform-the pale-blue pelisse and jacket of a hussar regiment—all the Russian horsemen, whether hussars, or lancers, or Cossacks, whether officers or troopers, were enveloped alike in the murky grey outer-coats which, by this time, had become familiar to the eye of the invaders. The grey was of such a hue that, like the grey of many a lake and river, it gathered darkness from quantity; and what people on the Chersonese saw moving down to overwhelm our 'three hundred,' were two masses having that kind of blackness which belongs to dense clouds charged with storm.

The English dragoons, on the other hand, were in their scarlet uniform, and (with the exception of the Greys, who had the famed 'bearskins' for their headgear) they all wore the helmet. The contrast of colour between the grey and the red was so strong that any even slight intermixture of the opposing combatants could be seen from the Chersonese. So great had been the desire of the English in those

V.

days, to purchase ease for the soldier at the ex- CHAP. pense of display, that several portions of our dragoon accoutrements had been discarded. The plumes of the helmets had been laid aside, and our men rode without their shoulder - scales, without the then ridiculed stock, and, moreover, without their gauntlets.

a

of four

now col

lected in

front of

the Greys.

Whilst the gazers observed that troop-officers in The group front of our first line were still facing to the men, horsemen still dressing and re-dressing the ranks, they also now saw that, in front of the centre of the Greys, and at distance from it of five or six horses' length, there was gathered a group of four horsemen. Two of these were side by side, and a little in front of the others. Of the two foremost, the one on the left wore the cocked-hat which indicated the presence of a Staff officer, and suggested indeed, at first sight, that the wearer might be the General who commanded the brigade; but a field-glass corrected the error, showing instantly that the horseman who thus caught the eye from a distance was no more than a young lieutenant-Lieutenant Alexander Elliot, the aide-de-camp of General Scarlett. But to the right of the young aide-de-camp there was another horseman, on a thorough-bred bay, standing fully, it seemed, sixteen hands. To judge from his head-gear, this last horseman might seem to be no more than a regimental officer of dragoons— for he wore the same helmet as they did-but an outer-coat of dark blue, thrown on, it seemed, over his uniform, served to show that he must be on the Staff. Because of the bright contrast disclosed be

V.

CHAP. tween the warm summer hue of his features and a drooping mustache white as snow, it was possible to see from afar that this officer must be General Scarlett. Of the two horsemen who kept themselves a little in rear of the General, the one was his trumpeter, the other his orderly. This last man had attained to high skill as a swordsman, and was a valorous, faithful soldier. If it were not for the general spread of incredulity, it would be acknowledged that he drew his lineage from some mighty giantess of former ages, for he bore the surname of Shegog.

Scarlett, placed in front of

the Greys,

prolonga.

line to

wards his left, but on his right the

squad

Scarlett's yearning at this moment was for the expected prolongation of his line towards its left, was wait and he compelled himself to give yet some moments ing for the for the forming of his 5th Dragoon Guards; but on tion of the his right, the one squadron of the Inniskillings (the squadron which he took to be the whole regiment) was both ready and more than ready. Differing in that respect from the rest of the three hundred,' the squadron had a clear front, and the sense of this ready and blessing so inflamed it with warlike desire, that during the moments of delay, Scarlett had to be restraining the line by waving it back with his sword. The squadron chafed proudly at the touch of the curb, and it seemed that if the General were to relax his care for an instant, it would bound forward up the hillside, and spring all alone at the column.

ron of the Inniskillings was

eager.

The cus

The custom of the service requires that an officer requires who has the immediate command of a body of cavalry

tom which

that in a

cavalry engaged in the duty of charging shall be the actual charge the

command leader of the onslaught in the strictest sense, riding for

V.

shall place ing officer

himself in

of his

squadrons.

the prac

not exact

such a task

as that

ward at a distance of at least some few yards in advance CHA P. of his squadrons; but it must not be supposed that those who originated or sanctioned this practice were acting in contemplation of any such circumstances as advance those which now existed, or that they ever intended to subject a general officer, or indeed any other human being, to the peculiar species of personal hazard which Scarlett had resolved to confront. As tested by its In its general general operation, the practice is not one which un- operation duly exposes the life of the chief; for when a strong tice does body of horse is hurled at full pace towards the foe, it commonly happens that either the attack or the resist- which ance gives way before the moment of impact; but in undertook. this rare example of a slow, yet resolute, charge of three hundred, directed uphill against broad and deep masses of squadrons which reckoned their strength by thousands, it seemed nearly certain from the first that the General leading it must come, and come almost singly, into actual bodily contact with a host of adversaries, and remain for a time engulfed in it, because the enemy's front ranks were so barred against all retreat by the squadrons behind them, that there could be no hope of putting the body to flight by the mere approach of our squadrons.

Scarlett

tance at

At this time, the distance between the Russians The disand General Scarlett is believed to have been about this time 400 yards.

For the better understanding of what presently followed, it is well to know that when a brigadier is

between

Scarlett

and the

enemy's column.

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