Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/140

 118 THE BATTLE OE BALACLAVA. OhAP. I. Major Ularkeof tli j Greys. The charge of the three hundred. the sphit with which Scarlett had led, and drove his way into the column. Whilst Major Clarke was leading in the right squadron of the Greys, an accident befell him, which might seem at first sight — and so indeed he himself apparent^ judged it — to be one of a very trivial kind, but it is evident that in its effect upon the question of his surviving or being slain it trebled the chances against him. With- out being vicious, his charger, then known as the ' Sultan,' was liable to be maddened by the rap- ture of galloping squadrons, and it somehow re- sulted from the frenzy which seized on the horse that the rider got his bearskin displaced, and suffered it to fall to the ground. Well enough might it appear to the pious simplicity of those Russian troopers who saw the result, and not the accident which caused it, that the red-coated officer on the foremost grey horse rode visibly under the shelter of some Satanic charm, or else with some spell of the Church holding good, by the aid of strong faith, against acres upon acres of swords ; for now, when Clarke made the last rush, and dug ' Sultan ' in through their ranks, he entered among them bare-headed. The difference that there was in the tempera- ments of the two comrade regiments showed it- self in the last moments of the onset. The Scots Greys gave no utterance except to a low, eager, iierce moan of rapture the moan of outburst iug desire. The [nniskillings went in with a cheer. With a rolling prolongation of clangour which