L'34 THE ALLIES SITTING DOWN CHAP, proof ut'the liglit in which his (quality as a soldier , " ' was regarded. For several days, and not without somewhat of reason, men at Headquarters — I speak not of Loid Raglan himself — had been sur- mising thai lialaclava was far from secure ; hut as soon as the Chief made it known that the place was in charge of Sir Colin, peoph; went to an ex- treme of confidence, and ceased to imagine that ground where he was commanding could now be the seat of danger.* And certainly it was from no mere friendliness towards Campbell that all this confidence sprang ; for his energy — a disturb- ing, and not always popular quality — together with the singular enmity he used to bear towards the Guards, was enough to prevent him from being liked in pi'oportion to the trust he inspired. But that trust was deep. The business of de- fending Balaclava with the slight means assigned for the purpose was no longer a problem nor a topic. iMcn knew the old soldier was there, and turned all their thoughts to the siege.-f- ixjintment of Sir Colin Campbell to the command of Balaclava was made, 1 tliink, on the 13th or 14th of October. The 14th was probably the day ; for that I see is the one assigned by Colonel Sterling. — its. by Sir Anthony Sterling, p. 108.
- The extent to which this extreme confidence was warranted
will be better judged of when we come to the battle of Bala- clava. It will probably be thought that some of the arrange- ments for maintaining the outer line of defence were faulty or incomplete. + A day or two ;ifter the appointment of Sir Colin Campbell to this command, a conversation with Lord Raglan turned upon the strenglli that everybody supposed to be given to the Bala- clava defences by the presence there of one man ; and it was remarked that the sense of security which the appointment
