Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/118

 96 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. CHAP. I. Lord Lucau's part in the attack. Positions of the six squadrons at the moment anterior to Scarlett's charge. ' do as you like.' Whatever were the words inter- changed, they at all events proved that Scarlett's determination to lead an immediate charge against the enemy's cavalry had the sanction of his divi- sional commander. Of course, it must be well understood that the attack we shall have to speak of took place under Lord Lucan's actual and personal authority. Holding command over the whole division of which the Heavy Dragoons formed a part, he had come up so early as to have ample time for pre- venting the charge if he had thought fit to do so ; and as it happened that, far from preventing, he eagerly sanctioned, the charge, nay, personally helped on the preparations for the measure, and undertook to support it by fresh troops — he made himself in the fullest sense responsible for the operation, and became, in all fairness, entitled to a corresponding share of any merit there was in the design. He either ordered or sanctioned the charge ; and the question, ' Who led it ? ' will not be brought into dispute. When the operation of wheeling a second time into line had been brought to completion by the Inniskillings and the Greys, our six squadrons ranged thus : In first line there stood the second squadron of the Inniskillings, with the Greys on their left. In second line the first squad- ron of the Inniskillings was on the right rear of the other Inniskilling squadron ; and on its left there was the 5th Dragoon Guards, forming up in Left rear of the Greys.