For at this moment the Russians presented a strong line of battle. The Fedoukine hills were black with heavy masses of infantry, no fewer than sixteen guns looked into the valley, and a body of foot Cossack riflemen were extended as skirmishers on the lower slopes; all this force of artillery and musketry being on the left flank of the valley down which Lord Lucan was about to hurl the Light Brigade. Across the mouth of the valley leading to the bridge over the Tchernaya and to Tchorgoun, with both flanks thrown well forward, stood the cavalry defeated by the Heavy Brigade, having in front, and parallel to the line of attack, a battery of guns belonging to a Cossack regiment. On the right of the line of advance two redoubts were occupied, and more than half the Russian infantry and a body of lancers were in position. Riflemen were extended along both sides of the valley. But, on our right flank, the artillery, except that in the second redoubt, fronted towards Balaclava. It was through a valley thus defended on the flanks, and thus barred at the end, that our Light Brigade were ordered to ride. The feat they accomplished is, perhaps, unparalleled in war.

Lord Cardigan had formed his ten squadrons in two lines, numbering from the right, the 13th Light Dragoons, the 17th Lancers, and the 11th Hussars; in the second, the 8th Hussars and the 4th Light Dragoons. Lord Lucan did not approve of this arrangement, and, drawing the 11th Hussars from the first line, he placed them in the left rear of the 17th Lancers. Thus the brigade formed three lines. The whole did not amount to many more than 600 men. Lord Cardigan took post in front of the centre of the first line. He was conspicuous, for he wore the uniform of the 11th Hussars, with its bright cherry-coloured trousers and gorgeous jacket, and he rode a strong and beautiful chestnut horse, with white heels. The signal was given, and—

"Into the valley of death

Rode the six hundred."

The brigade went over the shoulder of the hill at a trot. At once they came under the fire of the guns on the Fedoukine heights. The brave Nolan was in the van. He had not gone far when a piece of shell struck him, ripping open his chest. On went the brigade. In the race of death they had to run the course was more than a mile long. The guns on their left, the battery in front, served by Cossacks—who only sponged out after every sixth round, so that their fire might be rapid—the guns from the redoubt on their right, sent shot, and shell, and grape into the brilliant and swiftly gliding lines, the thunder of whose trampling hoofs was heard afar. The ranks were broken. The valley was strewn with heroes. The mere sight of this steadfast band swooping down upon them, made upon the Russians an impression so terrible that they instinctively drew back. "Their fierce attack," wrote Liprandi, "forced General Rijoff to retire by the road that leads to Tchorgoun." The infantry on the left went back nearer to Kamara, and ran into squares. "The enemy's attack," continued Liprandi, "was most pertinacious. He charged our cavalry in spite of the grape fired with great precision from six guns of the light battery, No. 7, in spite of the fire of the skirmishers of the regiment 'Odessa' [on the Russian left], and of a company of riflemen on the right wing, and even unheeding the guns of General Yabrokritski," on the slopes of the Fedoukine heights. Ignoring all this mass of destructive machinery, the Light Brigade swept on. The steadfast artillerymen fired their last round as the first line, rent and torn, closed upon the muzzles and, with a fierce cheer, dashed in. The gunners were caught before they could retire, and only those escaped who crept under the guns and waggons. Some Cossacks charged to save their guns. Lord Cardigan had encounters with several, but escaped with a lance thrust through his sleeve, and then he "rode away apparently unhurt." After the first line came Colonel Douglas, with the 11th, and then the 4th and 8th. In a short space, the first line, which had charged home so impetuously, was now broken into groups, and began to straggle back; but, some of them meeting the 11th, faced about once more and went on. All the regiments had passed the battery. Some of the men were even galloping right into the Russian cavalry, who had fallen back towards Tchorgoun.

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE AT BALACLAVA.

BY R. CATON WOODVILLE

(BY PERMISSION, FROM THE ENGRAVING PUBLISHED
BY MESSRS H. GRAVES & CO., LTD., PALL MALL, S.W.)

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