Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/314

 292 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. chap the several successive supports, and sustaining his Light Cavalry force with the power of his Heavy Brigade : but also he would be grievously imperilling this, his second and last brigade, by drawing it down with him into the gulf where his first brigade seemed disappearing. Should he, then, hold fast or let go ? His He let go. Elsewhere, the reasons which gov- erned him shall' be given in his own ampler words ; but the sentence which he uttered at the moment contains the pith of his argument. De- termining that the Greys and the Eoyals should at once be halted, he said to Lord William Paulett, ' They have sacrificed the Light Brigade : they ' shall not the Heavy, if I can help it.' The Greys By his orders the Heavy Dragoons fell back to and the J J ° Royals ground less advanced. It was only after two ordered to ^ J faii back : successive movements in retreat that the Eoyals and the Greys were relieved from the fire to which they had been exposed. their losses This fire had indeed been heavy ; and — under at this time,. . . . ., conditions very trying to horsemen — both regi- ments sustained it with a firmness so admirable, that even the out -dazzling splendour of their morning's achievement did not blind a skilled judge of such things to the merit of this warlike endurance. In the Royals alone — and this was a more than decimating loss — as many as twenty-one were dis- abled by deatli or by wounds, or by having their horses shot under them. Colonel Yorke, the com- manding officer, received a wound which cruelly