Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/25

THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. 3 mands in the East, the names of the men who had chap done service in the field were all set aside, and ' that from the peace-service residue exclusively the appointments in question were made. The officer entrusted with the charge of our Lord Lucm cavalry division was Lord Lucan. To his want of experience in the field there was added the drawback of age ; for he had attained to a period of life at which no man altogether unused to war service could be expected to burst into fame as a successful cavalry general ; but by nature Lord Lucan was gifted with some at least of the qual- ities essential for high command ; and his fifty- four years, after all, however surely they may have extinguished the happy impulsiveness which is needed for a wielder of the cavalry arm. can hardly be said to have impaired his efficiency in the general business of a commander. He enjoy- ed perfect health ; he saw like a hawk ; and he retained such extraordinary activity of both body and mind, that perhaps the mention of his actual age makes it really more difficult than it might otherwise be to convey an idea of the tall, lithe, slender, and young-looking officer, pursuing his task of commander with a kind of fierce, tearing energy, and expressing by a movement of feature somewhat rare among Englishmen the intensity with which his mind worked. At every fresh access of strenuousness, and especially at the mo- ments preceding strenuous speech, his face all at once used to light up with a glittering, panther- like aspect, resulting from the sudden fire of the