Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/34

 12 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. CHAP, partly by the favour of the Duke of York and the operation of the purchase system, he rose very quickly in the service, and at the end of about seven years from the period of his entering the army, he was a lieutenant-colonel. He had a passionate love for the service — a fair knowledge, it is believed, of so much cavalry busi- ness as is taught by practice in England — a strong sense of military duty — a burning desire for the fame which awaits heroic actions — and, finally, the gift of high courage. Lord Cardigan's valour was not at all of the wild, heedless kind, but the result of strong determination. Even from his way of riding to hounds, it was visible, they say, that the boldness he evinced was that of a reso- lute man with a set purpose, and not a dare-devil impulse. He bore himself firmly in both the duels he fought; and upon the occasion which opposed him to an officer against whom he was bitterly angered, he shot his foe through the body.* His mind, although singularly barren, and want- ing in dimensions, was not without force ; and he had the valuable quality of persistency. He had been so constituted by nature, or so formed by the watchful care which is sometimes bestowed upon an only son, as to have a habit of attending to the desires and the interests of self with a curious exactitude. The tendency, of course, was one which he shared with nearly all living crea- tures ; and it was only from the extraordinary proportions in which the attribute existed, and
 * Without, I think, killing him.