Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/459

APPENDIX. 4 37 ' is the only person in the Army that knows I have got ' it.' A week or two before his death he received permis- sion to give up this document, and told me he had de- livered it to Lord Raglan, or sent it home, and felt much happier for having got rid of it. I would not have written this secret even now, had it not become so generally known that lie was to have succeeded Lord Raglan had he (Sir George) lived. NOTE XL Respecting the part taken by Captain Nolan (see p. 219) at the time immediately preceding his Death. I have lately received an interesting confirmation of the inference upon which I ventured in p. 219 from the lips of one who was a trooper in the 17th Lancers at the time of the battle. This man says he not only saw Nolan with his right arm uplifted, and eagerly making sign to the troops, but distinctly heard him cry out ' Threes Right ! ' and he adds that some of the men were obeying the direc tion when Lord Cardigan countermanded it by vehement gestures, and by crying out ' No ! no ! Threes back into ' line ! ' This testimony is the more valuable since it was given simply in the course of a narrative showing the cir- cumstances connected with Nolan's death, and apparently without any idea of either sustaining or resisting any par- ticular conclusion. The witness says that Nolan had but just uttered the words ' Threes Right ! ' and that his sword-arm was still high uplifted, when he was struck by the shell which killed him.