Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/196

 170 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP, be altered, and altered down, to suit a pattern. • The State must dispense with his services or take him as he is. Body and soul, Lord Raglan was so made by nature, that, though he knew how to be prudent enough in the orders he gave to officers at a distance, yet when he was in the saddle directing affairs in person, and there came to be a question between holding back and going for- ward, his blood always used to get heated, and, like his great master, he had so often been happy in his choice of the time for running a venture, that his spirit had never been cowed. Having once begun to ride forward, he did not restrain himself. And surely there was a great fascination to draw him on. The ground was of such a kind that, with every stride of his charger, a fresh view was opened to him. For months and months he had failed to tear off the veil which hid from him the strength of the army he under- took to assail ; and now suddenly, in the midst of a battle, he found himself suffered to pass forward between the enemy's centre and his left wing. As at Badajoz, in old times, he had galloped alone to the drawbridge and obtained the surrender of St Christoval, so now, driven by the same hot blood, he joyously rode without troops into the heart of the enemy's position; and Fortune, still enamoured of his boldness, was awaiting him with her radiant smile; for the , path he took led winding up by a way — rather steep and rough here and there, but — easy enough