Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/253

 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 231 Sight, are brought into straits of this kind, their chap tendency is to be galloping swiftly forward, each ' man at the greatest pace he can exact from his own charger, thus destroying, of course, the formation of the line ; but Lord Cardigan's love of strict, uniform order was a propensity having all the force of a passion ; and as long as it seemed possible to exert authority by voice or by gesture, the leader of this singular onset was firm in repressing the fault. Thus when Captain White, of the 17th Lancers (who commanded the squadron of direction), be- came ' anxious,' as he frankly expressed it, ' to ' get out of such a murderous fire, and into the ' guns, as being the best of the two evils,' and endeavouring, with that view, to ' force the pace/ pressed forward so much as to be almost alongside of the chiefs bridle-arm, Lord Cardigan, checked Lord car- this impatience by laying his sword across the way of . f, -it i • -i • leading the Captains breast, telling him at the same time brigade. not to try to force the pace, and not to be riding before the leader of the brigade. Other- wise than for this, Lord Cardigan, from the first to the last of the onset, did not speak nor make sign. Eiding straight and erect, he never once turned in his saddle with the object of getting a glance at the state of the squadrons which followed him; and to this rigid abstinence — giving proof, as such abstinence did, of an un- bending resolve — it was apparently owing that the brigade never fell into doubt concerning its true path of duty, never wavered (as the best