V. present knowledge which we now have is exactly CHAP. what at the time was most wanting: and of course it is no more than right that the soundness of an officer's judgment should be viewed in its relation to those circumstances only which were fairly within the range of his knowledge or surmise when he had to make his resolve.* Heavy at the time Light Bri out of sight at the foot of the valley. The Heavy Dragoons at this time were but little Our if at all vexed by fire; and there was nothing to Dragoons distract their thoughts from the Light Brigade, or when the from the pain of dwelling on their own condition as gade was bystanders withheld from the combat. At first, the grey boundary of their sight was from time to time pierced by the flashes from the battery at the foot of the valley; the thunder of the guns was still heard, and the round-shot, one after another, came bowling along up the slope; but next there followed a time when the cloud at the foot of the valley remained blank without issues of flame, when a terrible quiet had succeeded to the roar of artillery, when no token of the fight could be seen, except a disabled or straggling horseman or a riderless charger emerging here and there from the smoke. Thenceforth the cause of anguish to those who gazed down the valley was no longer in what they could now see or hear, but in what they otherwise knew, and in what they were forced to imagine. They knew that beyond the dim barrier, our Light Brigade was ingulfed. On With respect to Lord Raglan's opinion as to the way in which Lord Lucan supported the Light Brigade, see his letter of the 16th of December 1854 in the Appendix. CHAP. the thought of what might be its fate they had to be dwelling, whilst they themselves remained halted. V. The Light Colonel Mayow and his fifteen lancers. Their junction with the 8th Hus sars. We descend once again to the borders of the aqueduct, where little more than two hundred of our horsemen, divided into several bodies, were hanging upon the retreat of almost the whole Russian cavalry; but we go there, this time, with the knowledge that the ascendant of the few over the many will not be supported by the regiments which Lord Lucan was keeping in hand. On our right, and on the line of the principal road which led, over the bridge, to Tchorgoun, we left Colonel Mayow with some fifteen men of the 17th Lancers. Upon descrying the English squadron, which had come down, as we saw, in the direction of his right rear, Mayow hastened to join it, and was presently in contact with the squadron which represented the 8th Hussars. It appeared that Colonel Shewell, the commander of the 8th Hussars, had not been killed or disabled; and, Mayow being now once more in the presence of an officer senior to himself, the temporary command which the chances of battle had cast upon him came at once to an end. He had been commanding less than a score of men during only a few minutes; and yet, with these means and within this limit of time, he had attained to a height of fortune which is not always reached by those who are described in the army lists as fieldmarshals and generals. He had had sway in battle. V. The fifteen men whom Mayow had brought with CHAP. him were ranged on the left of the 8th Hussars; and this little addition brought up Colonel Shewell's strength to about seventy. The panic which was driving from the field the whole bulk of the enemy's horse plainly did not extend to the Russian infantry on the eastern part of the Causeway Heights; for Liprandi's looking back towards their then right rear, our Hus- on the sars at this time were able to see the battalions Heights. still holding their ground, in good order. Nor was this all; for presently the glances cast back in nearly the same direction disclosed some new-comers. grey battalions Causeway squadrons kine's seen form of the 8th Three squadrons of Russian Lancers were seen issu- Three ing from behind one of the spurs of the Causeway of JeropHeights, and descending into the valley. Another Lancers instant, and this body of Lancers was wheeling into ing in rear line, and forming a front towards the Russian rear, Hussars. thus interposing itself as a bar between the English and their line of retreat. These three squadrons of Lancers the half of Colonel Jeropkine's regiment— were the force which had been placed, as we saw, in one of the folds of the Causeway Heights at the time when Liprandi was making arrangements for covering his retreat. At the moment when Colonel Mayow joined the 8th Hussars, Colonel Shewell had asked him, 'where 'Lord Cardigan was;'* and Mayow having replied * This question of 'Where is Lord Cardigan?' will be found recurring; but commanders of course cannot be everywhere at the same time, and it must not be understood that when an officer asks this question, he inferentially suggests ground of blame against the General for not being V. Colonel Shewell the senior officer in this emergency. CHAP. that he did not know, it resulted that Colonel Shewell, as the senior officer present, became charged with the duty of determining how the emergency should be met by the troops within reach of his orders. It does not, however, appear that there was much scope for doubt. After an almost momentary consultation with the senior officers present, including Colonel Mayow and Major de Salis, Colonel Shewell gave the word 'Right about wheel!' and the squadron, with its adjunct of fifteen Lancers, came round at once with the neatness of well-practised troops on parade. Colonel Shewell and Major de Salis put themselves in the front, and Lieutenant Seager commanded the one squadron into which, as we saw, the remains of the 8th Hussars had been fused. Mayow led the small band of Lancers which had attached itself to the Hussars. His charge. The seventy horsemen rode straight at the fluttering line of gay lances which the enemy was then in the very act of forming. The three Russian squadrons thus wheeling into line were at a distance from Shewell of something less than 300 yards, and the two leading squadrons had already established their line, but the third squadron was still in process of wheeling. Once more in this singular battle of horsemen, our people had before them a body of cavalry which visible at a particular moment and on a particular spot. It is right, however, to mention these dialogues; because they show, or tend to show, a devolution of authority creating fresh responsibilities. Thus, for instance, it resulted from the dialogue given in the text that Colonel Shewell, as senior officer, became the commander of that part of the first line which was within reach of his directions. passively awaited the charge. With his seventy CHAP. Colonel Shewell proved equal to the occasion. He lost not one moment. He was a man whose mind had received a deep impress from some of the contents of the Bible; but those who might differ from his opinions still recognised in him a man of high honour who extended the authority of conscience to the performance of military duties; and it has not been found in practice that a piety strictly founded on the Holy Testaments (taken fairly, the one with the other) has any such softening tendency as to unfit a man for the task of fierce bodily conflict.* As in the battles of old times, so now, and not for the first time, this day, he who was the chief on one side singled out for his special foe the man who seemed chief on the other. Shewell had not the advantage of being highly skilled as a swordsman, and being conscious of his deficiency in this respect, he asked * One of Shewell's companions in arms— a man well entitled to deliver a judgment on the merits of his lost comrade-has said of him, 'I knew the man with whom I had to deal-I knew that I was dealing 'with one of the most honourable, the most gallant, the most consci'entious, the most single-minded man it has ever been my good fortune 'to meet with,' V. |