Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/86

 64 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. chip, soldier might treat as the absolute dictates of ' honour. It may therefore well be that Lord Lucan performed a stern duty, when (with the sanction of Sir Colin Campbell) he determined that our cavalry must be patient of the attack directed against Canrobert's Hill, must endure to see English guns captured, must suffer our allies to be slaughtered without striking a blow to de- fend them; and the soundness of his conclusion can hardly be determined by the casuists, but rather by those who know something of the con- ditions in which the power of the cavalry arm (when cavalry chances to be the only available force) can be wisely, and therefore rightly, exerted.* If our people in general had known the truth, they would have been guilty of unspeakable meanness when they cast off all blame from them- selves, and laid it upon the Turkish soldiery — upon men who had been not only entrusted to the honour and friendship of our army, but were actually engaged at a post of danger in defend- ing the first approaches to the English port of supply.f The truth is, however, that the great bulk of observe it, tends to sanction Lord Lucan's decision. + Lord Lucan was never one of those who thus spoke. He could see the nature of the conflict on Canrobert's Hill, and I believe he has always spoken generously of the firmness with which the Turks awaited the onslaught of overpowering num- bers. Sir Colin Campbell was also a spectator ; and he says in his despatch, — ' The Turkish troops in No. One persisted as long ' as they could, and then retired.'
 * The opinion of our cavalry, so far as I have been able to