Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/359

 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 337 bat, aud the retreat, which are popularly com- chap. prised under the name of the ' Light Cavalry L ' charge,' lasted twenty minutes.* What was suf- ^ 1 ur L ti ^ t of fered and done in that time I have sought to Ca - va ^y o combat : record. I will add the opinion respecting this singular passage of arms which was spontane- ously and in private expressed by the English Commander. With but two small brigades of cavalry under his orders, Lord Eaglan had cogent reason for thinking bitterly of an operation by which one of them had been shattered ; and, when writing confidentially to the Secretary of Lo rd State, he declared that the result of the Light opmion S of Cavalry charge was a ' heavy misfortune ' — a mis- e c iarg6 fortune he felt ' most deeply. '+ In conversation at Headquarters he not unfrequently expressed his painful sense of the disaster ; and foreseeing the enthusiastic admiration which the feat would excite in England, he used sometimes to lament the perverseness with which he believed that his fellow-countrymen would turn from the brilliant and successful achievement of Scarlett's brigade to dwell, and still dwell, upon the heroic, yet self- destructive exploit of Lord Cardigan's squadrons; but the truth is that, apart from thoughts mili- tary, there was a deep human interest attaching to the devotion of the man and the men who, for generally adopted as likely to be right. Lord Cardigan at first used to speak of twenty-five minutes as the probable period, but he afterwards— and with great urgency — insisted that Gen- eral Scarlett's computation was the right one. t Private letter to Duke of Newcastle, Oct. 28, 1854. VOL. V. Y
 * This was General Scarlett's computation, and it has been