Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/159

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BATTLE OF TIIM ALMA. 133 riioinents when m-eat stress ini^lit come to bo CHAP. • • I put upon him, the very keenness of his desire to ' . judge ariglit would become a cruel hindrance. Nor was he a man who would be driven to burst his way through scruples and doubts by the impulse of any selfish ambition. Far from straining after occasions for acting on his own judgment, he would have liked, if he could, to receive a series of precise orders which would serve to guide him in every successive change. But a general of division must not expect to be long in a campaign without being thrown upon his own judgment. Lord Raglan had furnished the Duke with one order — an order ' to support

  • the Light Division in its forward movement ' —

and the Duke of Cambridge had begun to obey it by following the advance of the Light Division, and bringiu'ij his force home down to the en- closures ; but having thus come to the end of the open ground, he felt the want of some new sanction before he carried his Division into the vineyards. He knew that, for a while at least, the superb array of his Guards and Highlanders would be shattered by passing through enclosures, and he wished for another order from Head- quarters before he submitted to see his beautiful line broken up. The order ' to support the Light ' Division' was becoming an imperfect guide, be- cause that same Light Division had rushed head- long upon a task which was dissolving great part of it into a vast swarm of skirmishers. Were the Guards and Highlanders to do the