320 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. chap, with perfect simplicity and truthfulness as one 1 soldier might to another.* Lord George Lord George Paget now ventured — he seemed inquiry as to be speaking in grief, and in apprehension of of the first the dismal answer he might receive — he ventured to ask after the fate of the first line. ' I am ' afraid/ he said, ' there are no such regiments in ' existence as the 13th and 17th, for — I can give ' no account of them.' Hardly, however, had he spoken, when he saw on the brow of the hill some clusters of men standing by their horses, and among them some Lancers. Then he knew — for the English had only one Lancer regiment — that, so far at least as concerned the 17th, the disaster fell short of extinction. The escape One of those who returned to our lines with won.bweii. the remnant of the 4th Light Dragoons had been a prisoner in the hands of the enemy. I speak of Sir George Womb well, then an extra aide-de-camp to Lord Cardigan. When last we saw Wombwell he was not far from the front of the battery, but
- According to the version which I prefer — and it does not
much differ from others — Lord Cardigan answered, ' Wasn't I, ' though ? ' and then turning to Captain Jenyns said, ' Here, ' Jenyns, did not you see me at the guns? ' Jenyns answered that he did ; and he could well bear witness, because he was very near to Lord Cardigan at the moment of his entering the battery. The colloquy never had any importance, except in so far as it tended to show that there was an interval of time between the retreat of Lord Cardigan and that of Lord George Paget ; and its value in that respect has been superseded by the ampler knowledge we now possess — knowledge placing the fact beyond the reach of doubt.
