one dismounted and sat down, and not a word was said. The Russians advanced down the hill at a slow canter, which they changed to a trot, and at last nearly halted. Their first line was at least double the length of ourss-it was three times as deep. Behind them was a similar line, equally strong and compact. They evidently despised their insignificant-looking enemy; but their time was come. At that moment, the bugles gave out the signal to charge; and as the Inniskillen Dragoons on the right and the Scots Greys on the left, seemed suddenly to flash up the intervening part of the hill, with a cry that thrilled through the hearts of the British and French hosts alike, the immense force of the enemy curved itself like a crescent to receive and envelop them-the wings advancing, and the centre line remaining firm. The brief shock was distinctly heard by the world of armed spectators on the plateau, as the sabres clashed and the horses met; but in an instant it was over. Right through the first line of the enemy, without having been even detained, the Greys and Enniskilleners had passed, and were seen with sabres on high, and reddened, riding at tremendous speed towards the very heart of the second Russian line. All behind them was ruin, and they broke what was still before them with the same irresistible violence. But the wings of the enemy's cavalry were closing in tenfold numbers around the diminished band of heroes, whose rear and flanks they overlapped, when the 1st Royals and 4th and 5th Dragoon Guards charged with equal splendour, impetuosity, and effect, making the victory complete.

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

[AN INCIDENT IN THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA.] MEANWHILE, the business which the 600 sabres of the Light Brigáde were undertaking, excited the astonishment of the French and English armies on the pláteau, who noted the ominous bùgles. All eyes were turned in breathless sus

pense upon the scène. The Rússians' had retrograded into a less spársel and expansive òrder-their skirmishers, the waving lines of their light horse, and a double horn of advanced field-batteries' fórming, as it were, an immensely wide gallery, on which the British cavaliers on their magnificent horses were preparing to rùsh. To the left front of the Light Brigadel there was hostile artillery; to their right front there was hostile artillery; and they would have to sweep along the rifle range of three of the redoubts still in the hands of the enemy. But this was nothing. Straight before those 600 devoted riders' the whole of the Russian càvalry, now re-united "in six massive divisions," and pausing upon their own reserves (altogether at least 3000 stróng), were drawn up diagonally across the great gallery of raking fire which we have described, but farther in advànce. Would any of the daring assailants ever even reach them? But this, again, was nothing. Behind frowned thirty heavy guns along a regular líne of six enormous battalions of infantry, over whose heads in the réar thundered their great position-batteries from the hills! out of which the assailants had originally deboúched, and ón which they were now resting again in complete battle arrày; a whole àrmy, in short, of 30,000 mén impregnably pòsted, and holding in possession éverything' which our glorious Six Húndred' could attempt either to take away or assàil. One word mòre remains to be said: before the little band who had to make their desperate oútset could come to one stroke of the sàbrel or one thrust of the lánce, they had to clear a mile and a half of ground. The immortal règiments, whose lot it was thús, in all the pomp of wàr, but without one of the military chances of victory, to ride rejoicing like bridegrooms into the embrace of death, were the 4th and 13th Light Dragòons, the 17th Làncers, the 11th Prince Albert's Hussárs, and the 8th (the King's Royal) 'Irish Hussars. Their task, it will be thus understood, formed a melancholy contrast to thát! just undertáken' and accomplished by their comrades.

Swerving a little to their own left to get clearer spáce,

this handful of horsemen broke away supérbly upon their appalling èrrand, their comrades and allies on the heights watching the mòvement, first with wonder and even incredulity, then with absolute consternátion and boundless horror. Cries of astonishment and dismáy' rose throughout the whole càmp—the two Commanders-in-Chief were lost in àwe-none could co-operate with these horsemen nów; they were past help. Let us follow them. First, the redoubts opened with rifles and músketry upon their rìght; but, not turning a glancel either to one side or to the other, they were soon borne pást by their speed, which visibly incréased as they advanced. Every plúmel streaming back, every head bent slightly forward, every right arm alòft, every hòrsel at grand racing stríde, swift as a mèteor, the pageant of real battle, they flew onwards.

When they had cleared more than half the distance'.which had separated them from the huge columns of Russian cavalry forming the nearest portion of the enemy before them, and when, of the mile and a half, much less than three-quarters of a mile intervéned, a blaze of light! burst along the front, faint bluish wreaths of smoke rose into the àir' behind the íntervals in the Russian squadrons, obscuring the view of the Russian infantry màsses, and at the same móment the first line of the careering brigàde, so regular before, appeared like a line no longer, but all ravaged with gaps; men were seen lying on the ground' while their horses wheeled and fled back; others, on the cóntrary, were seen extricating themselves from the chargers which had fallen: a moment mórel and the thunders of the artillery! which had made this devastation' were borne to the ears of the excited camp. But still! the charge was not checked, and òn rode the survivors straight upon those murderous Russian gúns, into the very eyes of a storm of musketry from the army of foes behind them, and amid another' but now double cannonadel on both sides of their advánce— from the position-batteries of the hills. Different, indeed, was this manner of executing a charge; dífferent, indeed, was this style of cavalry fighting, from that of the fifteen

hundred Russian hórsel who on that very mòrning! had declined to meet the narrow front of a single regiment of Híghlanders in a single line, unsupported, and only two deep! How truly startling the contrast-how unspeakable the difference!

After riding beyond the gùns, cutting down the gùnners, breaking and shattering a column of infantry, and dispersing the cavalry that rode to the réscue, the heroes túrned to charge home again, their gory and streaming sábres no longer giving back the same flashes to the sùn, and they themselves! showing but òne man to every thréel who had gallopped, five minutes before, from beneath the heights of the allied circumvallàtion. Alas! dreadful as appeared such a change of númbers, the fúll alteration was not yet. Another tremendous double hurricane of shot, which, coming from opposite quarters, seemed to meet in their pérsons, passed among them as they túrned, and half their remaining force' vanished on the spòt. Then part of the Russian hòrse—a cloud of Cossack lánces-closed in, and interposing on their róad, not only seemed to bár it, but helped with the smoke to hide them complétely' from the anxious gázel of their comrades in the camp.

Among thèse it was a solemn móment' when they thus mentally said farewell' to every rémnant of the noble Light Brigàde! But a strange ínterest rivetted every look still! upon the blocked-up pláin, and a stranger spéctaclel rewarded that interest. Swift, sùdden, stròng, and mighty was that pounding crash' which, as with a báttering-ram, swung open the centre of the Cossack line, and flung its folds in shivering fragments on either side, as the Light Brigàdel came charging back and cleaving their terrible ávenue home. It was indéed the remnant of the British córps which had looked so magnificent! and so glittering a few short mìnutes before. Bloody, làcerated, and grim with the sweat and smoke of the battle, about a hùndred were seen together; and nearly as many morel straggled into the camp before èvening. Thèse' were the survivors

of the 607!

66

Such was the course, and such was the clòse of that extraordinary charge, whích, as General Sir William Napier afterwards justly remarked, was undertaken with so much good will, that a doubtful sign, rather than a clear and unmistakable órder," had sufficed' to set it in mòtion. Our allíes were lost in mingled sórrow and amazement; and General Canrobèrt declared that the feat, if it transgressed all the great rules of warlike prúdence, àlso transcended all the conceivable límits of warlike heroism.

Compiled.

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE,

HALF a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of death

Rode the Six Hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death

Rode the Six Hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Some one had blundered:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death

Rode the Six Hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them,

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well;
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell,

Rode the Six Hundred.