V.

CHAP. even the sense of being altogether unequal to strive against an onslaught of English cavalry did not suffice to make them yield. There was one of our officers who became afflicted, if so one may speak, with what has been called the blood-frenzy. Much gore besmeared him, and the result of the contest was such as might seem confirmatory of the vulgar belief as to the maddening power of human blood. This officer, whilst under the frenzy, raged wildly against human life, cutting down, it was said, very many of the obstinate Russians with his own reeking hand.* Other officers of a different temperament made use of their revolvers with a terrible diligence.

i

From his bearing at this time, it seemed that Lord George Paget scarce approved this kind of industry on the part of his officers. At all events, he so acted as to convey the impression that he reserved his energy and attention for the purposes of command, and did not conceive it his duty (except in actual self-defence) to become, with his own hand, a slayer of men.

As might be expected, the obstinacy of the Russians, interrupted in their task of carrying off the guns, was very unequal; and if some fought so hard as to involve our people in the combat we have just been speaking of, there were others who attempted no active resistance. Several drivers, for instance, threw themselves off their horses, and so crept under them, as in that way to see and find shelter. In the end our Dragoons

* I have heard that, after the battle, when this officer had calmed down, there was so great a reaction in his nervous system, that he burst into tears, and cried like a little child.

V.

got the mastery, and not only succeeded in preventing CHA P. the withdrawal of all the pieces of cannon which they had seen in the line of the battery at the time of their entering it, but also arrested and disabled some other guns-already a little way from the front-which the enemy was in the act of removing. The business.of repressing the enemy's obstinate endeavours to carry off his guns was of such duration that again there interposed a long distance between the 4th Light Dragoons and the regiment (the 11th Hussars) with which Lord George Paget had sought to align himself; for whilst the 4th Light Dragoons remained combating on the site of the battery, Colonel Douglas, as we know, was advancing; but his task in the battery being Farther almost complete, Lord George with a part if not with of Lord the whole of his troops, now pressed forward once Paget. more in the hope of being able to combine the next operations of his regiment with those of the 11th Hussars.

advance

George

Hussars,

The 8th Hussars, we remember, was on the extreme The 8th right of the forces advancing in support. Reduced to one-half of its former strength by that triple fire through which it had been passing, but still in excellent order, and maintaining that well-steadied trot which Colonel Shewell had chosen as the pace best adapted for a lengthened advance of this kind, this regiment had continued its advance down the valley, had moved past the now silent battery at a distance of a few horses' lengths from its (proper) left flank, had pressed on beyond it some three or four hundred yards, and by that time had so passed through the jaws of

V.

CHAP. the enemy's position, as to be actually for the moment in a region almost out of harm's way—in the region, if so one may speak, which lies behind the north wind.* Colonel Shewell then halted the regiment. Making only now one squadron- and that a very weak one-its remains stood formed up to their front. Colonel Shewell, it seems, had the hope that an order of some kind would presently reach him; and he well might desire to have guidance, for the position into which he had pushed forward his regiment was somewhat a strange one. On three sides—that is, on his front, and on the rising grounds which hemmed in the valley on either flank-Colonel Shewell saw bodies of the enemy's cavalry and infantry; but the Russian forces in front of him, both horse and foot, were in retreat, and numbers of them crowding over the bridges of the aqueduct. Yet nowhere, with the exception of his regiment, now reduced to a very small squadron, could he descry any body of our cavalry in a state of formation, though before him, in small knots or groups, or acting as single assailants, he saw a few English horsemen who were pressing the retreat of the enemy, by pursuing and cutting down stragglers.

After continuing this halt during a period which has been reckoned at three, and also at five, minutes, Colonel Shewell resumed his advance.

These remains of the 8th Hussars formed the small but still well-ordered squadron, which we saw coming

* I need hardly say that the idea of referring to the 'country of the 'Hyperboreans' as a modern illustration, belongs to Mr Lowe. See his celebrated speech in the House of Commons, 1866.

down towards the spot where Mayow had checked CHAP. the pursuit, and halted his small group of Lancers.

V.

the battle

It seems right to survey the circumstances in which State of the Allied forces stood at this critical and interesting at this period. period of the combat. At the bare apprehension of the advance against the Causeway Heights which Lord Raglan had twice over ordered, Liprandi, as we saw, had retracted the head of the column there established in the morning, and had probably at this time no higher hope than that of being able to retreat without seeing his infantry and artillery involved in the overthrow which was sweeping his cavalry out of the field. On the Fedioukine Hills, the head of Jabrokritsky's column was rolling up under D'Allonville's brilliant attack. In the low ground between the Causeway Heights and the Fedioukine Hills, the condition of things was this: Having intruded itself, as we know, a mile deep into a narrow valley, hemmed in on three sides by Russian forces of all arms, our Light Cavalry Brigade had overthrown all the forces which before confronted it, and was disposed for the moment as follows: The still combating remains of the first line were broken into groups and small knots, numbering perhaps, altogether, after the retreat of the men acting under O'Hara, as many as thirty. Of these, some were combating in a desultory way, with little other purpose than that of defending themselves, and endeavouring to make out what best they could do in the confusion; but others, as we

CHAP. saw, were hanging upon the skirts of the Russian

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squadrons, and, in effect, pressing on the retreat by assailing the people who lagged. The group of some fifteen men under Mayow had coherence enough, as we saw, to be able to put to flight the body of horse which encountered them.

On our extreme left, Colonel Douglas, with his 11th Hussars, now counting a little more than 50 sabres, was pursuing the retreat of the Russian Lancers which had given way under his charge; and on his right rear, Lord George Paget (having quelled the attempts of the Russians to carry off their guns) was advancing with a part at least of the 4th Light Dragoons, a regiment now reckoning, perhaps, about the same numbers as the 11th Hussars. These two regiments formed our left; and although at this moment they were not so placed as to be visible the one to the other, the direction of Douglas's advance was so far known to Lord George Paget as to make it likely that the two regiments might find means of acting together in concert, with a force, when united, of about 100 sabres. In the event of their doing so, Lord George Paget, as the senior officer, was the one who would be entitled to take the command.

Towards our centre, we had no troops at all in a state of formation; but on our extreme right, as we know, the 8th Hussars, now reduced to a strength of about 55, and commanded by Colonel Shewell, was advancing towards the group under Mayow. The event proved that this group of fifteen under Mayow was still in a state of coherence which ren