Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/318

 296 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. CHAP. I. otherwise knew, and in what they were forced to imagine. They knew that beyond the dim barrier, our Light Brigade was engulfed. On the thought of what might be its fate they had to be dwelling, whilst they themselves remained halted. The Light Brigade. We descend once again to the borders of the aqueduct, where little more than two hundred of our horsemen, divided into several bodies, were hanging upon the retreat of almost the whole Kussian cavalry ; but we go there, this time, with the knowledge that the ascendant of the few over the many will not be supported by the regiments which Lord Lucan was keeping in hand. On our right, and on the line of the principal road which led, over the bridge, to Tchorgoun, we left Colonel Mayow with some fifteen men of the 17th Lancers. Upon descrying the English squad- ron, which had come down, as we saw, in the direction of his right rear, Mayow hastened to w'itiiti.'e 8th join it, and was presently in contact with the Hussars. S quadron which represented the 8th Hussars. It appeared that Colonel Shewell, the commander of the 8th Hussars, had not been killed or disabled ; and, Mayow being now once more in the presence of an officer senior to himself, the temporary com- mand which the chances of battle had cast upon him came at once to an end. He had been com- manding less than a score of men during only a few minutes, and yet, with these means and within this limit of time, he had attained to a height of fortune which is not always reached by Colonel Mayow and his fifteen lancers. Their junction