JACK was heartily glad when, on the third day after the battle, the dead having been buried and the wounded conveyed aboard ship, the forward march was continued.
There had been delays, caused partly by the unreadiness of the French, and partly by the vacillating policy of Marshal St Arnaud, the French commander, a conceited man of mediocre ability, who was even then, poor fellow, dying of disease.
Jack’s officer, Captain Norreys, had been appointed on Lord Lucan’s staff, much to the regret of the troop, who regarded him with the greatest confidence and respect.
‘I’m glad to leave that battlefield behind,’ said Jack to Linham as they rode along.
‘Leave that behind to find another,’ growled the sergeant, who was not in the best of humours; ‘and mayhap the next you won’t leave behind. You’ll stay on it, or under it.’
Without seeing an enemy, the cavalry descended to the valley of the Katcha, where they had seen the panic-stricken troops from the Alma, and there they halted. The village was extremely pretty; the homely, vine-clad cottages had gardens then full of bloom in front and rear; well-filled orchards adjoined the gardens, and the troopers ate their fill of grapes, pears, peaches, and apricots. On entering the cottages, signs of Russian barbarity were met on all sides—furniture smashed, pictures slashed and ripped, boxes and cupboards ransacked, and so on.
The main body of the British army bivouacked that night on the Katcha; but the cavalry pushed on five miles farther, to the Belbeck, where they passed the night more or less uncomfortably, having to stand to their horses for two hours owing to a false alarm.
In the morning it was found that several of the Hussars’ horses had broken away from their lines, and these had doubtless been the cause of the alarm. Soon after daylight an officer arrived from Lord Raglan, and he and Lord Lucan remained some time in conversation.
Then the cavalry started upon that daring ‘flank march’ which the ineptitude of the dying French commander-in-chief had almost forced Lord Raglan to adopt. The advance was led by an experienced officer said to know the country. A horse-battery and a battalion of Rifles accompanied the cavalry, who marched with flankers thrown out. On account of having to keep pace with the Rifles the advance was very slow, the road, which was bad and often exceedingly steep, leading through a dense forest. A narrow lane was supposed to lead to a spot known as Mackenzie’s Farm, and this lane was to be left for the artillery and cavalry, the infantry forcing their way in any sort of order through the forest.
The men were in high spirits and laughed and chatted gaily as they rode along, chaffing the sturdy Rifles and bidding them ‘put their best leg foremost.’ After a march of some miles a halt was made, and Jack, who with his troop was near the head of the column, saw a staff-officer and several of the 8th Hussars busy talking together. The lane branched into two parts, one going straight on, the other going to the right.