Theirs not the reason why,
Theirs but to do and die,—
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred."
Some one had blundered, but exactly who has never been entirely settled. The officer who received the order was one of the first who fell; and, of the six hundred and seven men who composed the Light Brigade, only one hundred and ninety-eight returned. All the world wondered at the magnificent charge.
"When can their glory fade?—" asks the Poet Laureate. Never while courage and heroism are honored.
On the fifth of November the battle of Inkermann was fought during a dark, heavy fog. This was the fiercest fight of the campaign, and took place almost entirely in the dark. It was a hand-to-hand combat, and the loss was very heavy on all sides. It was, however, a victory to the allies; and the queen was so well pleased that she expressed her admiration of Lord Raglan's generalship by conferring upon him the baton of field-marshal.
Sir George Cathcart was one of the officers who lost his life in this campaign, and the queen wrote a most touching letter of sympathy to his widow. As a mark of regard to his memory, her majesty appointed his daughter Emily one of her maids-of-honor.
The Russians behaved, as they always do, with the greatest barbarity. "When poor Sir George Cathcart fell," writes the queen, "his faithful and devoted military secretary sprang from his horse, and with one arm—he was wounded in the other—supported his dying chief, when three wretches came and bayoneted him." Such scenes were not at all uncommon; and when the English or French soldiers were assisting the wounded enemy that were left on the battlefield they always took the precaution to deprive them of their arms; for it was not unusual for a Russian soldier to receive a cup of water with one hand, and stab his benefactor in the back with the other.
During the winter the suffering among the troops was very great. Cholera had attacked them and thinned their ranks to a great extent. Men were dying by hundreds, because the hospitals were in such a bad condition, and even the stores of food and medicines that were sent out could not be got at. There was a lack of system and organization in the army, which prevented supplies from reaching the proper places, and they were often left to decay in the holds of vessels, or worse still, fell into the hands of the Russians.