Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/48

 26 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. chap 62d had been driven back and almost annihii- ' uted, he executed a desperate charge, and with his standard-bearer and five troopers penetrated into the Sikh entrenchments. In recognition of his brilliant cavalry service in that war, Lord Hardinge appointed him to a command in his oody-guard, and made him honorary aide-de-camp. Being afterwards constrained to leave India by the state of his health, he entered the Eoyal Army, and it was owing to this necessitated change that he bore no higher rank than that of lieutenant. With all the special knowledge and instincts of a brilliant cavalry officer, he had qualifications of a more general kind ; and if there had been at the time of the invasion a minister so strong and so resolute as to be able to do the thing which is right, a man such as Elliot would have been eagerly laid hold of and entrusted with high cavalry command. But this was not all that Scarlett was able to do towards arming himself with the experience of men who had done good service in war. Colonel Beatson had fought under Evans in Spain, and had afterwards risen to high distinction in India. Being for the time in Europe, and yielding to the warlike impulses of his nature, he had laid aside those considerations of military rank which might have governed a lower order of mind, and con- sented to be attached to General Scarlett's Staff as his extra aide-de-camp. Lord Lucan, with that unhappy perversity which was so constantly marring his cleverness, opposed himself to this