Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/256

230 BATILE OF THE ALMA. CHAP, a few horsemen and some guns, at Punj Pao, ■ compelled the submission of the combined tribes then acting against him with a ibrce of 8000 men. It was he who, at Ishakote, with a force of less than 3000 men, was able to end the strife ; and when he had brought to submission all those beyond the Indus who were in arms against the Government, he instantly gave proof of the breadth and scope of his mind as well as of the force of his character; for he withstood the angry im- patience of men in autliority over him, and insisted that he must be suffered to deal with the conquered people in the spirit of a politic and merciful ruler. After serving with all this glory for some forty - four years he came back to England ; but between the Queen and him there stood a dense crowd of families — men, women, and children — extending further than the eye could reach, and armed with strange precedents which made it out to be right that people who had seen no service should be invested with high command, and that Sir Colin Campbell should be only a colonel. Yet he was of so fine a nature that, although he did not always avoid great bursts of anger, there was no ignoble bitterness in his sense of wrong. He awaited the time when perhaps he might have high command, and be able to serve his country in a sphere proportioned to his strength. His friends, however, were angry for his sake ; and along with their strong devotion towards him there was bred a liurce hatred of a