Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/200

 178 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. chat, had earned for himself a large share of glory in J combats and pitched battles. Him they placed under a General fifty-seven years old, who, with- out any warlike experience, still sincerely pre- sumed himself competent to the exigencies of high command in the field ; and then they crowned their work by causing or allowing the army to understand that it would be an ' irregu- ' larity ' for the man who had learnt war on the Sutlej to tender his opportune counsel to the one who had come from Hyde Park. A brigade of light cavalry drawn up in two lines on good turf, and employed in the occupa- tion of gazing upon a fight sustained against a great stress of numbers by their comrades the Heavy Dragoons ; the man of the Sutlej entreat- ing that the brigade might advance to the rescue, but rebuffed and overruled by the higher author- ity of the man from the banks of the Serpentine who sits erect in his saddle, and is fitfully 'damn- ' ing the Heavies' instead of taking part in their fight — these might seem to be the creatures of the brain evoked perhaps for some drama of the grossly humorous sort ; but because of the sheer truth, their place is historic ; and if comedy seems to result, it is comedy prepared in White- hall. It is comedy too of that kind which some- times teaches and warns. By the will of our military authorities at home, the man versed in war was placed under the man versed in quarrels. Lord Cardigan had been charged to command ; Captain Morris had to obey. The exaggerations