Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/229

 THE BATTLK OF BALACLAVA. 207 consequent disturbance of mental faculty which chap Nolan's outbreak was but too well fitted to occa- L_ sion ; but it is not for that the less true that a steady perusal at this time of Lord Kaglan's writ- ten instructions by a cavalry commander of sound judgment, who was also unruffled in temper, and acquainted with the state of the field, must have led to an immediate advance of our squadrons — to an immediate advance of our squadrons, not, of course, down the fatal North Valley, but against the line of the Causeway Heights, where the English guns had been lost. How Lord Lucan should have dealt with an aide-de-camp who had made bold to apostrophise him in the way we have seen, that is a question which soldiers, with their traditional canons, will best determine. Since the messenger came fresh from a spot where he had been hearing the direc- tions of the Commander-in-Chief, and looking down with full command of view upon the posi- tion of an enemy invisible from the low ground, he could not but be fraught with knowledge of almost immeasurable worth ; and apparently the immediate interests of the public service required that an effort should be made to undo the mischief which had been caused by provoking his indigna- tion, and endeavouring to bring him back to such a degree of composure as to allow of his imparting what, only a few minutes before, he had been hearing and seeing. On the other hand, the due maintenance of military subordination is, of course, transcendantly important; and it has been judged,