V. CHAP. the Russian wing continued its wheeling movement so long as to become defenceless on its extreme right. At the near approach of the Royals, that outer part of the wheeling line which was the most immediately exposed to its assailants broke off from the rest; and then the horsemen who had composed it were either flying or involved in confusion, or else-for several of the Russian hussars made bold to do thus -were valorously advancing and making their way round the flank of the advancing English; but meanwhile, by all this confusion, the inner or left remnant of the Russian wing was so far covered from the attack, and even, it would seem, from the sight of the Royals, that it went on with the execution of the orders received, and continued to wheel inwards. * The English regiment carried on its attack to a point at which it was just brought into contact with the broken extremity of the enemy's deployed line; and a few sabre-cuts were exchanged; but farther than this the Royals did not push their advantage; for the discomfiture of a part of the wing did not visibly involve the great column; and considering the disordered state of the regiment, Colonel Yorke judged it prudent to rally his men before they were thrown into contact with a huge mass of troops still preserving their thickest formation. Accordingly, and at a time when only a few of its pursuing troopers had as yet ridden in amongst the retreating horsemen, the regiment was halted and ordered to re-form. *Of the Royals I understand two were there wounded, of whom one was Sergeant Pattenden. V. Besides Colonel Yorke, who commanded the regi- CHAP. ment, the officers present with the Royals at the time of its re-forming were Major Wardlaw,* Captain Elmsall, Captain George Campbell, Captain Stocks; and the following subalterns-namely, Pepys, Charlton, Basset, Glyn, Coney, George Robertson, Hartopp, and Sandeman. An exploit performed at this time was observed with some interest by numbers of the Light Brigade men, then gazing down at the fight. Troop-sergeantmajor Norris of the Royals, having been separated by a mischance from his regiment, was a little in rear of it, and hastening to overtake his comrades, when he found himself beset on open ground by four Russian hussars, who must have ridden past the flank of our people. Norris, however, though having to act alone against four, found means to kill one of his assailants, to drive off the rest, and to capture the charger of the slain man. Dragoon Farther towards our right, and so placed as to The 5th be in support to the Greys, though somewhat out- Guards. flanking their left, there stood the 5th Dragoon Guards. It was commanded by Captain Desart Burton; and the rest of the officers then acting with the * Major Wardlaw (now Colonel Wardlaw, the officer now commanding the regiment), though suffering from illness, had found strength enough to enable him to be with the regiment in the earlier part of the day, but afterwards his sickness increasing, he had been forced to go back to camp. Afterwards, whilst sitting or lying down outside his tent-door, he saw our Heavy Dragoons with the enemy in their front, and then instantly mounting his charger (which he had caused to be kept saddled with a view to such a contingency), he found means to reach the scene of conflict at the time when the regiment was re-forming. V. CHAP. corps were Captain Newport Campbell, Captain Inglis, Lieutenant Halford, Lieutenant Swinfen, Lieutenant Temple Godman (the adjutant of the regiment), Cornet Montgomery, Cornet Neville, Cornet Ferguson, and Cornet Hampton. The regiment had at length been formed up in line; but its two squadrons were in inverted order, the first being on the left, and the second on the right. For a moment there seemed to be a question whether it might not be prudent to transpose the squadrons into their respective places, but the pressure of time was too cogent to allow of long ceremony; and, without first correcting its order of formation, the regiment moved forward. It had to pass over ground much obstructed by remnants of the Light Brigade camp; Captain Campbell's charger, for instance, was overthrown by a picket-rope which crossed his line of advance; and I believe that, though Neville owed his mortal wound to the lance of a Cossack, he had first been brought to the ground by one of these camp obstructions. At this time, the inner, and still unbroken part of the enemy's right wing had already wheeled in over an arc represented by an angle of nearly sixty degrees; and, strange as the statement may seem, there still is sound proof of the fact that the obedient Muscovite troopers continued thus to wheel inwards till they had come to be obliquely in front of the column, and with their backs towards our 5th Dragoon Guards. It is true that amongst these wondrously submissive horsemen there were some who so far fronted as to find means of hastily using their carbines against our peo V. ple; but it seems to be established that a portion, at CHA P. least, of the in-wheeling line did really suffer itself to be charged in rear by our 5th Dragoon Guards. It could not but be that many of the Russians would be cut down or unhorsed when the English regiment charged in, as it did, amongst troopers thus rendered defenceless by the nature of their own manœuvre ; but, on the other hand, very many were protected from the edge of the sword-nay even, indeed, from its point by the thickness of their long, ample coats ; and, upon the whole, there were numbers of horsemen, some English, some Russian, who thronged up against that part of the column where the Scots Greys were eddying back; so that Russians belonging to the Themelley column, and Russians belonging to the right wing, and men of the Scots Greys and men of the 5th Dragoon Guards, were here forced and crowded together in one indiscriminate melley. Nor were these the only components of the crowd. Men of the same brigade, but having tasks assigned them elsewhere, broke away from their duties in camp, and some of them on invalid chargers-found means to gallop up into the fight. Amongst these, two regimental butchers, each busy with his sword, were conspicuous because of their shirt-sleeves. Moreover, there could be seen here and there a man of the Light Brigade, * In strictness, perhaps, this word should be spelt 'mesley,' or 'masly' (not 'medley,' a word from another root), but I follow the mode which obtains in 'pell-mell.' The word is so familiar to Englishmen of different classes of life, and so well derived from old French, that there is no reason for allowing it to be supplanted by any such mincing substitute as 'mêlée.' VOL. IV. N that was formed in the part of the col umn at tacked by Dragoon V. CHAP. who, for sake of the strife, had stolen away from his regiment, and was mingled with the rest of the combatants. Change in the bearing batants. And, at the part of the column thus assailed by the of the com- 5th Dragoon Guards, there was a change in the bearing of the combatants a change brought about, it would seem, by exceeding weariness of the swordarm, but in part too by another cause. After three or four minutes of a new experience, it proved that a man could grow accustomed, as it were, to the condition of being in a throng of assailants, and take his revel of battle in a spirit as fond as at the beginning, yet by this time less anxious, less fierce, less diligent. Those truculent Scots, who had cut their way in without speaking, were now, whilst they fought, hurrahing. The din of sheer fighting had swelled into the roar of a tumult. Efforts made to rally the Greys. Alexander Miller, the acting Adjutant of the Greys, was famous in his regiment for the mighty volume of sound which he drove through the air when he gave the word of command.* Over all the clangour of arms, and all the multitudinous uproar, his single voice got dominion. It thundered out, 'Rally!' Then, still louder, it thundered, The Greys!'t The Adjutant, as it chanced, was so mounted that his vast, superb form rose high over the men of even * I dare not speak of the distance at which, as I learn, his voice could make itself heard, but I may so far venture as to say that the distance was such as to be computed by the mile. + It seems that, even when this regiment is addressed in the vocative case, it is customary to retain the definite article, and address it as 'The Greys.' |