Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/213

 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 191 men prevented England from having what he chap. held to be her own — from having an ascendant *_ among nations resting mainly, or at all events largely, upon the prowess of her squadrons. Be- cause this faith was glowing within him, Nolan had sorrowed and chafed at the unobtrusive part taken by our cavalry in the earlier days of the invasion. His journal, going down to the 12th of October, lies open before me. It teems with impatience of the comparative inaction to which our cavalry had been condemned ; and discloses a belief — a belief based apparently, in part, upon somewhat wild processes of reason — that the commander of our cavalry was the man upon whom blame should rest. Nolan must have been solaced, one may suppose, nay, enraptured, by the feat of our Heavy Dragoons; but, on the other hand, he could not but be tortured by having to witness the inaction to which the Light Brigade stood condemned whilst their comrades were righting, and for this (if he knew not that the commander of our cavalry was present elsewhere) he probably blamed Lord Lucan. Besides, at the moment we speak of, an occasion had been offer- ing itself to the cavalry, and Lord Ptaglan, as we know, had been ordering it to advance without being yet obeyed. Upon the whole, therefore, it is easy to understand that Nolan must have been burning with anger and zeal. This was the officer to whom, by Lord Rag- lan's direction, General Airey delivered the or- der. Without having had their observance quick-