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was to obey orders, and he obeyed them to the letter. 

 He was the first to dash in at a gallop among the 

 Russian guns, but, unfortunately for his reputation, he 

 was not the last to come out. Beyond all question, he 

 left the men, whom he had so gallantly led to their goal, 

 to find their way out of the tangle in which they were 

 involved, as best they could. From the moment he got 

 among the Russian cavalry he effaced himself as a 

 leader, and simply fought, like Hal-o'-the-Wynd, ' for his 

 own hand.' Why he should so strangely have forgotten 

 or ignored the duties of a leader is an enigma to which 

 no one has offered a satisfactory solution. He was not 

 the sort of man to lose his head in any crisis, yet unless 

 he did so on that occasion, his conduct is inexplicable. 



Two months later he returned to England, the alleged 

 reason for his leaving the Crimea being ill health, yet 

 his appearance at the various complimentary banquets 

 given him hardly suggested incapacity for active service 

 in the field. No doubt, the real reason was that the 

 friction between himself and Lord Lucan had become 

 so pronounced that his presence in the Crimea would 

 only have led to further unpleasantness, and the Govern- 

 ment were only too glad to find an excuse for getting 

 him away, by appointing him Inspector-General of 

 Cavalry at home. At this time he was the object of 

 the people's idolatry. Everywhere he was welcomed 

 as a hero ; and in his speeches at the public banquets 

 given in his honour by the Lord Mayor of London and 

 various municipal bodies in the provinces, he, with that 

 tranquil self-esteem characteristic of him, took the 

 honours showered upon him as his due, and enlarged 

 upon his own prowess with a naivit^ which, in any other 

 man, would have been stigmatised as braggadocia, but 



