CHAP. eighty or ninety disordered dragoons who might try

V.

The two

retreating regiments

after hav

the barrier

by the Russian Lancers.

to brush across the faces of their rough foes, would be in danger of incurring grave losses. As it was, our people found themselves saved yet again, as they had been saved before, by the bewilderment of troops who were too military' to be warlike.

It was something for our people to be no longer encountered in their homeward course by a barrier of ing passed hostile cavalry; but, at the first aspect of it, their interposed plight was still desperate; for being but few, and in disorder, and having a long extent of uphill ground which must be traversed before they would stand in safety, they were on horses now cruelly jaded; whilst the hostile squadrons behind them had not only the strength and the weight of numbers and of solid formation, but also were fresh.

However, those Russian artillerymen who had twice before guarded our cavalry by toiling for its destruction, now once more helped its retreat. It is true that, from a cause then unknown to our retreating horsemen (who, of course, had not witnessed the achievement of D'Allonville and his Chasseurs d'Afrique), the guns on the Fedioukine Hills which had shattered their ranks whilst advancing were now silent; but from the Causeway Heights on the opposite side of the valley there opened a diligent fire against the remnants of the two retreating regiments; and as before had occurred with other bodies of the enemy's cavalry, so now this new effort of the Russian artillerymen served to keep back Jeropkine's Lancers, and prevent them from undertaking the

destructive pursuit of our horsemen, which would CHAP. otherwise have been in their power.

Besides being scanty in numbers, these retreating remnants of the 4th Light Dragoons and the 11th Hussars were by this time so much broken up into small groups, or knots, or single horsemen, that they no longer presented to the enemy's gunners the broad easy mark that is offered by a regiment of cavalry in a state of formation; but if there was now no formed squadron that could be opened and cleaved by shell or by round-shot, each dragoon individually still had to be reckoning on the death that might come the next moment; and this the last trial which the soldier passed through was that of riding for life, with the torment of being forced to ride slowly; for he had to toil on uphill under a heavy fire, at the laggard and always decreasing pace which represented the utmost remaining power of his wearied horse.

The ground traversed by these remnants of the 4th Light Dragoons and the 11th Hussars was strewn with such ruins of brilliant squadrons as might well be more distressing to them than to any other regiment, except, perhaps, the 17th Lancers. Lord George Paget's and Colonel Douglas's regiments in the course of their advance had encountered ugly traces of battle, but they now, as they rode, saw the marks of a yet more terrible havoc; and, this time, a great proportion of those they saw dead, or dying, or cruelly disabled, were men of their own regiments. Amongst the wounded comrades and friends thus passed, some

V.

CHAP. were walking erect, though feebly, some limping,

V.

some crawling; and it was grievous to have to see the still living remains of horses with the trappings upon them of the 4th Light Dragoons or the 11th Hussars, some violently struggling to get up, though perhaps with more than one limb shattered, or floundering back with cruel weight upon their disabled riders. Of those who lay wounded and dying upon the ground thus retraced by our people, there was one who extended his arm, saying-but no, I pass on, and yet leave here the half-written sentence. There are some to whom it will speak.

As the pace of each rider had long since had no other limit than the last strength of his sinking horse, it resulted, of course, that, after a while, the single horseman and the groups or knots of those who kept together were divided by lengthened intervals. The greater number of them were still toiling on up the valley under heavy fire without knowing how much further they would have to go before they might call their lives their own, when at length-and this came by surprise they all at once caught a glad sound. In their front they heard an English cheer. It ceased, but was presently followed by another, and then again by another. These greetings were the welcome bestowed by spectators upon each officer or group of horsemen coming up the incline, and returning, as it were, from out of the abyss.

Lord George Paget (whose wearied horse had long been failing him in pace) was one of the last of the shattered brigade who rode labouring in up the valley.

Some officers moved forward to greet him, and one of CHAP. these was Lord Cardigan.

Lord George Paget then uttered an exclamation which has now no importance either historical or personal; but it had a bearing, some thought, upon a question formerly in controversy, and was therefore, at one time, so much spoken of that the suppression of the words (though they are now altogether immaterial) might confuse, and be misunderstood. Seeing Lord Cardigan approach composedly from an opposite direction, Lord George Paget exclaimed to him, ' Holloa! 'Lord Cardigan, weren't you there?' Naturally, the bystanders smiled; but Lord Cardigan saw that no jest was intended, and answered at once with perfect simplicity and truthfulness as one soldier might to another.*

V.

Lord George Paget now ventured-he seemed to Lord George be speaking in grief, and in apprehension of the Paget's dismal answer he might receive-he ventured to ask after the fate of the first line. I am afraid,' he said,

there are no such regiments in existence as the 13th and 17th, for-I can give no account of them.'

* According to the version which I prefer-and it does not much differ from others-Lord Cardigan answered, 'Wasn't I, though?' and then turning to Captain Jenyns said, 'Here, Jenyns, did not you see me 'at the guns?' Jenyns answered that he did; and he could well bear witness, because he was very near to Lord Cardigan at the moment of his entering the battery. The colloquy never had any importance, except in so far as it tended to show that there was an interval of time between the retreat of Lord Cardigan and that of Lord George Paget; and its value in that respect has been superseded by the ampler knowledge we now possess-knowledge placing the fact beyond the reach of doubt.

inquiry as to the fate

of the first

line."

V.

CHAP. Hardly, however, had he spoken, when he saw on the brow of the hill some clusters of men standing by their horses, and among them some Lancers. Then he knew-for the English had only one Lancer regiment —that, so far at least as concerned the 17th, the disaster fell short of extinction.

The escape

of Sir George Wombwell.

One of those who returned to our lines with the remnant of the 4th Light Dragoons had been a prisoner in the hands of the enemy. I speak of Sir George Wombwell, then an extra aide-de-camp to Lord Cardigan. When last we saw Wombwell he was not far from the front of the battery, but his charger had just been shot under him. He so quickly succeeded in catching and mounting a stray horse as to be able to join the 4th Light Dragoons when they came on, and advance with them down to the guns. There, however, his newly-caught horse was killed under him (as his own charger had been some minutes before), and, this time, he found himself surrounded by twenty or thirty Russian Lancers, who took from him his sword and his pistol, and made him prisoner. It happened that Captain Morris (then also, as we know, a prisoner, and with his head deeply cut and pierced by sabre and lance) was brought to the spot where Wombwell stood; and it is interesting to observe that, in spite of his own dreadful condition, Morris had still a word of timely counsel that he could give to a brother officer. Look out,' he said to Wombwell'look out and catch a horse.' At that moment, two