176 REMINISCENCES OF 



" Another guest arrived. It was Count Stro- 

 ganoff's steward, a retired major of hussars, now close 

 upon seventy, but as smart and as dandified as a 

 young fellow of twenty. Ivan Ivanovitch had re- 

 ceived his commission in 1848, and had been through 

 the Hungarian campaign and the Crimean War. He 

 was wounded at Balaklava, and gave a vivid descrip- 

 tion of the historical ' Charge of the Light Brigade '. 



" ' We were sorry for them,' he said ; ' they were 

 such fine fellows, and they had such splendid horses. 

 It was the maddest thing that was ever done. I 

 can't understand it. They broke through our lines, 

 took our artillery, and then, instead of capturing our 

 guns and making off with them, they went for us. I 

 had been in the charge of the Heavy Brigade in the 

 morning, and was slightly wounded. We had all 

 unsaddled, and were very tired. Suddenly we were 

 told " The English are coming ". " Confound them," 

 we said. My Colonel was very angry, and ordered 

 his men to give no quarter. I was lying at some 

 distance, with my wound bandaged, when I saw 

 them coming. They came on magnificently. We 

 thought they were drunk from the way they held 

 their lances. Instead of holding them under their 

 armpits they waved them in the air, and of course 

 they were easier to guard against like that. The 

 men were mad, sir. They never seemed to think of 

 the tremendous odds against them, or of the frightful 

 carnage that had taken place in their ranks in the 

 course of that long, desperate ride. They dashed in 

 among us, shouting, cheering and cursing. I never 



