Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/377

 THE BATTLE OP BALACLAVA. 35f> fires into the front of the twelve-gun battery, and chap. the glory allotted to the chief would have been L nearly as free from question as the glory of his martyred brigade. But, as in the disposal of his daily life Lord Cardigan had separated himself from his troops by choosing to live in that home of comparative luxury which a well-supplied yacht could afford, whilst not only his officers and men, but even his immediate commander, lay always camped out in the plain, so also in the graver business of upholding his fair fame as a soldier by argument, assertion, and proof, he acted in such manner as to sever himself from that very brigade with which his renown had been blended. Under stress of ill health, he returned to Eng- land. There, as may well be supposed, he was greeted with the wildest enthusiasm ; and then began the long process by which he mismanaged his military reputation. By consenting to be made the too conspicuous and too solitary hero of public ovations ; by giving to the world his own version of the famous Light Cavalry charge ; by showing — he showed this quite truly — how well he had led the attack, but omitting — and there was the error of errors — to speak of that separa- tion which I have called being ' thrown out ; ' by continuing in this course of action until he provoked hard attacks ; by submitting to grave specified charges, or meeting them with mere personal abuse ; by writing letters to newspapers ; by sending complaints to the Horse Guards ; by making himself the bitter antagonist of officers,