Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/135

 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 113 Elliot's charger had rushed past, the weapon, chap. though held fast by its owner, still could not be ' withdrawn. Thence it resulted that the Eussian officer was turned round in his saddle by the leverage of the sword which transfixed him. In the next instant, Elliot, still rushing forward with great impetus, drove into the column between the two troopers who most nearly confronted him, The three , ., , , , horsemen and then, with a now reeking sword, began cleav- riding with ing his way through the ranks. Shegog and the trumpeter came crashing in after ; so that not only Scarlett himself, but all the three horsemen who constituted his immediate following, were now engulfed in the column. A singular friendship had long subsisted between The ancient the Scots Greys and the Inniskilling Dragoons, between the It dated from the time of that famous brigade in and the in- ,, niskilling which three cavalry regiments were so brought Dragoons together as to express by their aggregate title the union of the three kingdoms, yet offer a sample of each ; * but the circumstance of the Greys and the Inniskillings having been brigaded together in the great days can hardly be treated as alone sufficing to account for the existence and duration of this romantic attachment ; for it so happens that the sentiment which thus bound together the thistle and the shamrock has never included the rose. The friendship between the Scottish and the Irish regiment had the ardour of personal friendship, and a tenacity not liable to be relaxed brigade represented England waa the ' Royals.' Vol. V. H
 * The ' Union Brigade.' The regiment which in that historic