Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/75

 THE BATTLE OV BALACLAVA. 5-"> seems to have counselled this policy — he deter- mined to confine himself to threats. His threats failed to deter; for the Eussians pursued their design like men who had yet found no hindrance; 1,Isde8] K n - and indeed it seems probable that the firmness of purpose they soon after disclosed was in some measure occasioned by the circumstance of their having detected our cavalry leader in a deter- mination to threaten without striking. Since the ground, in most places, was favourable for the manoeuvring of horsemen, with no such obstruc- tions as would prevent them from attempting flank attacks on the enemy's infantry and artil- lery, it may be that a cavalry officer fresh from war -service would have been able to check Liprandi, and to check him, again and again, without sustaining grave loss ; but if a man can so wield a body of cavalry as to make it the means of thus arresting for a time an attack of infantry and artillery without much committing his squadrons, he has attained ' to high art ' in his calling ; and to expect a peace-service general to achieve such a task, is much as though one should take a house-painter at hazard and bid him portray a Madonna. There were riding amongst our squadrons men well tried in war — men famed alike for their valour and their skill as cavalry officers ; and although the perversity of our State authorities laboured, as it were, to neutralise the unspeakable value of such experi- ence by putting the men who possessed it undei peace-service generals, yet if Campbell's command