The Charge of the 600. An Interesting Letter.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 431, 25 December 1889, Page 4

The Charge of the 600. An Interesting Letter.

An interesting letter is uublishecl in the 1 Standard ' from Colonel John Shakespear, who was present at the charge of the ' SixHundred.' He says: — I deemed it desirable to learn what the Russians are doing, and, as the horse I had ridden was wounded by the splinter of a shell, I mounted a baggage pony and rode up the grass slope to near the crest of the now famed valley, where 1 tethered him to a tent peg, and crept on through the long grass until my telescope cautioned Beware ! The brushwood on the hills opposite was full of puns, and dawn the valley were troops by thousands, Captain Charteris, one of Lord Lucan's aides-de-camp, now rode by, but as he did not see me I hailed him with the information, when he replied, • The Light Brigade is ordered to attack ; ' and while we were speaking it hove in sight, advancing and deploying at the trot and canter. There was not time for warning, so I ran to my pony, and, getting back to the guns as fast as he could carry me, brought them up at full speed and placed them over the vidsre wbere best able to aid the remains of the six hundred in their inevitable retreat. At this time Lord Cardigan leined up a,nd told me what had happened, at the same time pqinting to a long rent in his cherry overalls made by a Cossack Lancer, who had otherwise missed his aim. Others rode or ran up to the guns. Amongst the last was Captain Godfrey Morgan, 17th Lancers, now Lord Tredegar, whose horse had been killed and his helmet lost. However, he came to me sword in hand, and, speaking as cool as hs would on parade, &aid, 'Is not this an awful business, Shakespear ? What shall Ido t My reply was, * (,>uiek, jump on a gun limber and go to the roar with us, or to the fro^tif we go into action, when you may help fight a gun.' We must not forget the volley from the 93rd Highlanders which emptied many Russian saddles near tho entrance to the village of Balaclava, nor the abtaok on the Russian artillery in the brushwood by the French cavalry on white horses. I can see them now, so conspicuous were they on the hill. So keen is memory formed on the battlefield that even now I fancy I see Nolan and his horse lying dead, like many others whose names 1 did not know. Of my friend Charteris I have a remarkable foreshadowing of fate to relate. On the previous evening, he and I, while taking a quiet ride, saw signs of a fight on the morrow, when he spoke gloomily of its being his last. My saying, * Well we havo been under lire together pretty often, and yet here we are again,' did not cheer him. 4 !No, it would be the last.' A round-shot killed him directly wo parted on the ridge above named. As the spot was debatable ground, my gunners buried him then and there.

A man may smilo and smile and fee a whisky sbUl.\Yhen the stars a,re pot out shining they ftre pvobaMy lqcfced up in the atnr otambei*. There's a big bluudovbuss at tbo winilow; Thfjro'B a out on the backyard fcuco ; There's a sliot : there's a squall, A long caterwaul. And then— there is silence intense.