xl BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH. 



than three weeks after the fall of the Malakoff and the repulse of the English at the Redan. 

 Lord Arthur still felt keenly the failure of our troops on the 8th of September. He refers to a 

 report that troops were to accompany the fleet in an expedition to Kinburn, and that the 

 English would probably send a Brigade consisting of Highlanders. As these regiments never 

 had any opportunities of doing any thing, that would give them a chance. They were all 

 in fine order and condition, not demoralized by the loss of men and officers, but much more 

 like English troops than other regiments of the line. " For these and other reasons it should 

 have been the Highland Division (comprising as it did two strong regiments just arrived 

 from England, and one that had done little trench-duty) that was sent into the Itedan, which, 

 with the Guards in support, would have carried the work easily enough after the French held 

 the Malakoif." General Vinoy asked Lord Rokeby, " Do you know what the French army says 

 is the reason that the English were so beaten at the Redan ? They say that it was the fault 

 of General Simpson in sending his worst troops instead of his best to the assault. He sent a 

 division which had been culhuUe at the Alma, and which had been beaten at the Redan once 

 before, which was made up of recruits that were mutinous as well as cowards. Moreover 

 his two assaulting divisions were commanded by generals 'qui ue voulaient pas sortir des 

 tranchees.' " 



After the fall of the south side, and the consequent end of the siege of Sebastopol, the allies 



were free to strengthen their position at Eupatoria and Kertch, to take Kinburn and to meditate 



other enterprises ; but there came a lull in the operations against the enemy on the plateau, 



and towards the close of 1855 the Army before the town was heartily sick of the war — the men 



bored with the inactivity of the life in camp, and the officers anxious to go home. In this 



state of things nearly every one was looking most anxiously for peace ; but that was a remote 



probability, at least till the spring. Arthur Hay, however, was not one of those, as the 



country was at war. "This is a sentiment little shared in by the ai-my, and of course not 



at all by those who are hurrying to England. And yet there is little in England to inspire 



feelings of chivalry and patriotism. A lot of lazy idle rascals in arm-chairs writing criticisms 



on the conduct of the troops in moments of danger, which not one of them would face if 



out here! Your observations as to Colonel Windham astonish me; you say, he must be a 



fine fellow. Do you not think, for one instant, of the IGO officers killed and wounded who 



were doing as much as he] Do you not think of the other Brigadiers who were wounded 



while he remained untouched? Are they not deserving of equal admiration'? Windham 



showed no aptness for war ; he simply did not run away altogether. He did leave the ' Redan ; ' 



and there are men here who say he ought to have remained ; for the moment he left it, all the 



men who stood bolted. However, his courage was equal to that of others who lived, but not so 



